Brian Marshall and Yupu Zhao Franklin & Marshall College Davis Projects for Peace Proposal

Environmental Leadership Program

Background: Our idea for this project for peace was born out of our personal friendship and mutual interest in environmental issues. Overtime, we have developed a better understanding of each other’s culture and the serious environmental challenges that both and the United States are facing. Our project aims to establish a line of communication, through peer education, between these two influential nations to promote cultural understanding while advancing environmental protection.

Project: In the late 1960’s, growing citizen concern over air and water quality in the United States led to one of the most successful and nonviolent grassroots campaigns the world has ever seen. Earth Day 1970 was a remarkable demonstration of the power of informed individuals that led to some of the most sweeping environmental legislation to date. Today, China is struggling with the very same environmental problems America faced 40 years ago, yet the average Chinese citizen remains largely uninformed of the causes and extent of the problems. Our project for peace is to develop and implement an environmental education and leadership program for a group of university students in western China. In this way, we will be building peace by empowering students to make progress towards a greener China with the underlying intent of building relationships between Chinese and American students. The first part of our project will be to gain a more comprehensive view of exemplary environmental programs at American colleges and universities. We have already visited Dickinson College and have plans to visit Penn State University because of its outstanding environmental records. We also attended the National Conference of Science and Environment in Washington D.C. in January where we were able to connect with other college students to get a better sense of what’s happening on campuses across the country. During the spring semester and early summer, we will incorporate these findings and develop a suitable curriculum for the Environmental Leadership Program in collaboration with Franklin & Marshall College professors James Strick and Richard Pepino of the Earth & Environment Department. Beginning in late March we will recruit students from different universities in the metropolitan area. Chengdu, Yupu’s home city, is an ideal location for this program because it is the largest city in western China with a very diverse, urban population. As a typical western Chinese city, the level of environmental awareness is less mature than that of the United States or even much of eastern China, which is more developed and internationally oriented. With the support of pre-selected universities and local environmental protection bureaus, we will develop an application process for interested students to select the best candidates from a variety of schools. Before traveling to China, we will present an outline of our program to both the Environmental Action Alliance and to the Chinese student community at Franklin & Marshall. This will allow us to receive constructive feedback regarding our content as well as our presentation to native Chinese speakers. Once in Chengdu, we plan to implement a ten-day environmental leadership program with a group of twenty students. We will draw student leaders from different universities in Chengdu to maximize our total impact. The curriculum will emphasize three areas critical to China’s development: air quality, water quality, and climate change. These topics were specifically chosen because they have serious ramifications for the health and prosperity of Chinese citizens. Our plan is to include lectures from guest speakers, video presentations, and discussions in conjunction with field exercises that will allow students to apply their knowledge to real-world situations. We will emphasize, through a detailed guide for the participants, how to establish environmental programs and awareness campaigns at the university level. We believe it is important to stress that the goal of this program is not a one-way channel of interaction but an ongoing dialogue between students in the U.S. and China. As a requirement for the program, we will have the participants report back to us about their progress as we continue to share information and ideas. In addition, we will report our experience back to the Environmental Action Alliance and the Chinese student community at Franklin & Marshall.

Project Partners: In executing our Environmental Leadership Program we will work with the Center for Environmental Education of Chengdu, a branch of the Chengdu Municipal Environmental Protection Administration, which will

1 provide educational materials, guest speakers, and promotional support for our program. In addition, we have partnered with three universities of varying size in Chengdu. University is a typical large university with outstanding academic reputation; is a mid-size comprehensive university; Chengdu Astronautic College is a small vocational college. These schools have agreed to provide us with logistical support and promote the Environmental Leadership Program to their students.

Qualifications: As an Environmental Science major (Yupu) and Environmental Studies major (Brian), our class work revolves around environmental issues, including background information on our three topics. Our individual experience with peer-health education (Yupu) and career peer advisement (Brian) will allow us to effectively communicate our ideas to the student participants. In addition, since both of us are currently on the Executive Board of the Environmental Action Alliance (EAA), we have sufficient experience in designing and implementing campus environmental activities. Our backgrounds make us both ideal candidates for the successful implementation of this project.

Timeline:

Phase 1: March – May • Work with partner universities and the Center for Environmental Education of Chengdu to implement application process • Deadline for application – May 10th • Visit Penn State University student environmental groups • Develop curriculum in conjunction with F&M professors • Pilot our program to the Chinese community and EAA at Franklin & Marshall • Make travel and lodging arrangements

Phase 2: June – July • Review applications and notify selected students by June 1st • Conduct a test run of our field exercises including a drinking water quality test and a visit to an air quality monitoring station in the U.S. • Purchase and ship supplies for the program

Phase 3: August • Leave for China – August 1st (tentatively) • Pick up supplies and prepare for students to arrive • Environmental Leadership Program – August 8th- 18th • Establish contact mechanism for students to stay in touch • Receive participant evaluations • Depart China – August 29th (tentatively) • Finalize our Project for Peace Final Report

Phase 4: September – • Report our experiences back to the Chinese student community and the EAA at F&M • Maintain contact with program participants • Coordinate future collaboration between students at F&M and at the selected Chinese Universities

In his acceptance speech for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, Al Gore pointed out an interesting aspect of the Chinese language: the two characters that comprise the Chinese word for crisis individually mean “danger” and “opportunity”. China’s current environmental problems are a continuing threat to the health and prosperity of its 1.3 billion citizens and need to be improved immediately. However, these enormous challenges also provide a great opportunity for meaningful international cooperation. Through our program of environmental education we can provide a framework for peaceful collaboration between China and the United States that can be used as a model for future relations.

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