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Cordova High students leading sustainability efforts on campus
Foot-candles and Watts became common in conversation for several Cordova High School students. They measured the energy efficiency of their school using high-tech instruments with the help of SMUD.
Cordova partnered with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in a classroom and school energy auditing program that examined energy consumption at the school. The participating students presented their findings and made recommendations to the Folsom Cordova School Board.
SMUD presented the opportunity as a week long summer program in which students from the region honed their energy auditing skills working with SMUD instructors at Samuel Jackman Middle School in Elk Grove. The students were then able to bring the skills they learned back to Cordova to take part in SMUD’s Auditing, Conservation and Teaching project (ACT).
“[The project] links energy efficiency education with workforce skills development, giving students hands on experience” according to Jacobe Caditz, the ACT Program Coordinator.
The program came in the form of a paid internship for the participating Cordova students: Elaine Jennings, Delmy Morales, Malonna Simpson, Ikenna Njoku, Samarah Willis, Sabrina Lahrach, Mariam Khachatryan and Anita Ismayelyan.
“The students have this on their resume, which looks good in an interview or on college applications” said Caditz.
After measuring things like the energy consumption of lights and the loss of heat through doorways, the students are now reaching beyond just those who participated directly. They have now started the Cordova “Green Team” to lead their campus’s effort toward sustainability and conservation.
“We encourage saving energy around school and at home…behavior makes the biggest difference in energy efficiency” said Megan Cook, the Cordova teacher working with the program.
The wide impact of ACT has SMUD excited as well. The formation of the “Green Team” is elevating the environmental consciousness of the entire student body at Cordova, potentially having a greater impact than SMUD could have ever imagined.
“[ACT] helps create a culture of conservation… [The students] are even making a green club, which really evolved originally from this project” said Caditz of the program.