Students go green, look at what's ahead at summit

Published: Tuesday, Mar 17th, 2009
More than 300 high school students from across the South Coast will be seeing green, and talking about green trends, on Wednesday in Coos Bay.

They'll be on the Southwestern Oregon Community College campus to kick off this year's annual Youth Summit . The all-day event will focus on theme "Bring on the Green," featuring seminars on recycling, conserving and other green solutions.

This is the eighth year of the youth summit, which invites students from 10 high schools on the South Coast to participate.

All activities, themes and the main speaker are chosen by a student planning group led by committee chairwoman Emily Brooks from Bandon High School. This year, the group has selected San Francisco-based motivational speaker Josh Shipp as the keynote speaker.

Students can attend two of the six break-out sessions with guest speakers.

What do Relationships have to do with Teen Pregnancy? Speakers include Lawrence Piper and Sandra Harms.

Saving the Earth with the Power of One. The speaker is Sharon Morse.

Another 911/The Hard Truth. Speakers are Genelle Hanken and Leslie Opland. This session is about drunken and reckless driving and how it impacts lives.

Internet Safety. The speaker is Jason Randolph. Just how safe is your MySpace page? This seminar focuses on how people gather personal information over the Internet.

Barnga. The speaker is Caroline Cruz. This interactive session uses a card game to test skills and patience, but along the way players may learn something about their personalities.

Media Literacy. The speaker is Nigel Wrangham. This session addresses how media and advertising can shape people's opinion without their knowledge.

The Youth Summit is a project of the Coos County Commission on Children and Families. The Menasha Group of the Oregon Community Foundation is sponsoring Shipp's appearance.

For more information, call the commission office at 396-3121, ext. 392.