Environmental Awareness Project: Earth Day in Kharkiv

As a public awareness activity, the freshmen, sophomores and juniors in the English Translation/Interpretation Program at the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute in met with other university students to watch the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" (Al Gore).

The purpose of this viewing was to heighten students' awareness of the issue of global warming, but also to provide a forum for discussion and the practice of their English language skills. Further, I wanted the learners to have the same type of sociopolitical discussion found in thoughtful, robust universities in the U.S. This forum yielded great concern and enthusiasm on the part of the students. They expressed significant anxiety over the state of the environment, yet simultaneously a feeling of powerlessness to make any real impact. A core of them was motivated by the video to address some of the issues of pollution in the Kharkiv area.

On Wednesday morning, April 24th, 2008 at 9am, approximately 30 students gathered at the University and trudged, chilled to the bone, to the university's sports complex park where we picked up trash and planted grass seed. It was a fun time for those of us interested in giving back/doing something productive to honor the Earth and those of us "not allergic to work" in the immortal words of my mentor, Dr. Dick Gunn.

After a couple of muddy hours digging bottle caps out of the mud and gathering trash, we had managed to clean the entire park. Of course, some areas were a bit cleaner than others, but we did the best we could for such a surprisingly chilly spring day. There were at least 15 large garbage bags filled with rubbish, and some very muddy students at the end. The park's gardener was beaming with happiness and gratitude for all the assistance.

Toward the afternoon, most of the students had retired to warmer climes. But there was the "Hard Core Crew" who made it all worth it. This core of 12 kids were truly inspired by the movie and really wanted to make a difference. They worked their a….arms off. They cleaned up and then turned the soil in a large area, so that the grass seeds could take root. Then, they spread the seeds and fertilizer. It took them about 4 hours of pretty hard labor. I was proud of them.

My goal in this project was to develop language skills, and then do something more than just talk. What it showed my students was something much deeper about the power to exact change when you put your mind, voice and labor to it.

Since then, several of these motivated students attended the Youth Leadership Conference in Lviv, which was initiated by another Fulbrighter, Linda Gray. The students assisted in the choice of an environmental action theme for their project. They have also sent me some pictures of the growing grass! I hope that this group of young leaders will help Ukraine develop an environmental consciousness that will help the country preserve its natural beauty.