What Teaching About Forks and Spoons to 1,000 Elementary Schoolers Taught Me

This is a guest blog post from Isa Merel, a Bend High graduate who attends Occidental College (’23). During her winter break, she helped to educate local students about reducing cafeteria waste. We are so grateful for her time and effort! 

“They say you can learn a lot from young people. Their enthusiasm, optimism, and free spirits are envious and inspiring as we age into cautious, skeptical adults. As a 19-year-old college student, I didn’t think I was old enough to learn from people only a few years younger than me. After all, I was only in elementary school less than a decade ago. To my surprise, however, the boys and girls I interacted with over the two weeks I interned with the Environmental Center have taught me more about myself and the ever-growing need for optimism in today’s world.

Everyone told me my first winter break of college would be unbearably long and lonely. After the last few months of new-found independence, friendships, and growth in college, it was easy to believe that going home for six weeks would be boring, especially in Bend, where I have grown up. At my small liberal arts school in Los Angeles, it was easy to get lost in the fun and freedom of freshman year in the SoCal sunshine. There was always something new to do, someplace new to explore; in LA, there’s excitement around every busy sidewalk corner. Bend, though beautiful, is small enough that I think I’ve been to every coffee shop three times and done every hike at least once. So, I made a choice to make the most of my time at home, not just to catch up with friends and family, but to use my new college skills and knowledge to better my community, even in a small way.

I emailed Jackie Wilson, Education Coordinator at the Environmental Center, about a month or so before I arrived in Bend asking if she had any work for me to do over the few weeks I’d be home. I wanted to do something— anything— to keep myself occupied over the break. I didn’t expect that she would offer me a full-paid short-term internship helping to educate elementary schoolers on the importance of reducing our ecological footprints by reducing waste in the school lunchroom. I’d also be helping to draft a proposal to the BLP School Board to switch to reusable cups in the cafeteria in place of milk cartons as well as implementing meatless meals to reduce the BLP District’s carbon footprint. Though teaching and interacting with what would end up being over a thousand elementary schoolers was a bit out of my comfort zone,the internship would keep me busy and give me something meaningful to put on my growing résumé. Little did I know that the experience would give me so much more than that.

I learned that I do, in fact, like kids. Even though there was one that insisted I was in middle school, even though one asked if I was “COOL” and when I said yes he said “Oh, so you’re a Constipated, Overweight, Out-of-style Loser?,” even though some of them stared blankly ahead as I attempted to engage them in learning, the overall consensus I came to is that kids are awesome. They have the energy and optimism to
make lofty goals and suggestions, something I’ve realized was lacking in my last years of high school and now in college. Around me, people tell me I’ll have to consolidate my goals to something more “achievable.” Even one of my favorite teachers in high school said I would just have to have to dream smaller. I never asked for reality checks, yet I always got them, and I figured that was just the way it was as an adult. But two weeks of nonstop youthful optimism threw me right back into my big dreams.

At the end of each presentation, I would ask the students if they had any questions, suggestions, or comments they wanted to contribute. Every time, without fail, the kids would ask
something to the effect of, “If plastic and waste is so bad, why don’t we just stop producing trash? What if we had reusable everything?” And, with a big smile on my face and hope for the future, I would tell them that, if they got really good at using reusable silverware, they could prove to their principals and teachers that they are responsible enough to have other reusable things like plates, cups, and more. They’d nod their heads and promise me they’d do a good job.

It might seem cliché, but they really did inspire me. Here I am, four weeks into only my second semester at college and I’m getting A’s on all my assignments, helping to plan Earth Month, starting a bird conservation club, and volunteering every weekend on different projects around Los Angeles. I even just washed my sheets! Last semester, I barely made it to my 8:30am class every week. And I fully believe that the positivity and motivation of the kids I worked with over Winter Break are the reason I’m able to aim— and land— so high. These kids want to make change. They know what’s going on in the world around them and they want to make it better. Most importantly, they believe in themselves and the world enough to think that change will actually happen. And you know what? I believe it, too.

Thank you to Jackie and the Environmental Center for giving me such an amazing experience! Cheers.”