Ultimate Green Classroom

Currently we are projecting proceeds from The Green Dream Showcase, donations, and ad revenue from our insert in the Cleveland Jewish News will yield profits of $75,000. Keeping our mission statement in mind, the students are designing the "Ultimate Green Classroom". They are working with Doty and Miller architects, a leading Green architectural firm, to design a national model for an eco-classroom.

Key Players

When the students began planning their entrepreneurial enterprise, they had limited sights on what they could achieve – after all, what did they know about business and marketing in the first month of their Career-Tech Marketing Program. The advantages of hands-on, project based learning immediately became apparent.  They were to learn all of the exciting marketing concepts by being immersed in them.

We drew on community and business partners to assist the class in planning.  Our Junior Achievement Consultant, Karen Carmen – Beachwood City’s Community Services Director, came on board with expertise, passion, and talent.  Several key strategic partners joined our efforts, Aleris International and Chairman Steve Demetriou stepped up as lead sponsors to underwrite the event.  As a company built on sustainability, it gave Aleris a chance to give back to their hometown.  

Creative talent was key to branding the event.  Partnering with Chris Hixson of Incite Creative and Sean Higgins of The Bubble Process was just what the students needed to start thinking like marketers.  No textbook could ever make branding come alive like working with two of the leading creative designers in Ohio.  The Green Dream was taking on personality and beginning to explode.  Each new person that joined our team brought their own network to the table.  Synergy was happening.  A small idea was being taken to levels never dreamt of at the start.

Key players joined us daily – the Mayor’s Office, The House of Blues Foundation, TCP, Millcraft Paper, Cleveland Jewish News, Entrepreneurs 4 Sustainability, We Add Up, Chipotle, Jakprints.com, Walk & Roll Cleveland, Green Energy TV, Doty and Miller Architects and on and on. Each day the students are finding new people that share the same passion for the earth.

The Perfect Storm Is Brewing

Consider the initiatives, goals, and aspirations of Governor Strickland, First Lady Strickland, and Dr. Susan T. Zelman.  At the heart of all these initiatives are three common themes – doing what is right for the 21st century students, doing what is right for the environment, and doing what is right for Ohio’s economy.  

The Green Dream has brought these three goals together in “The Perfect Storm”.  In this case, the storm has positive outcomes – shaking up the old way of doing business and education.  Creativity and innovation are guiding the students and their entrepreneurial enterprise while inspiring others to approach their daily lives and business with more concern for the earth.

A project that was developed to be an entrepreneurial enterprise with a green focus has transformed to address STEM.  The students have learned about the science of paper and printing, geothermal and wind technologies, carbon emissions, sustainable forestry to name a few.  Technology is being applied in our creative development, in understanding new energies, and in designing an eco-classroom. Engineering has guided the businesses that we learning from and creating new ones on the horizon.  Students are learning the value of collaboration as engineering meets the marketplace. Math skills are being addressed in utilizing carbon calculators, working with budgets and pricing, applying business math, and establishing measurements.

The Green Dream Project is reaching out to all students in the Beachwood City Schools.  Activities include TCP’s Bright Town assemblies in the elementary schools, green art and music projects at all grade levels, and interdisciplinary activities among Career-Tech Programs.

I’ve watched the Marketing students transform.  They’ve become business leaders; they‘ve worked cohesively as a team; they‘ve embraced entrepreneurialism; they‘ve observed the world differently; they’ve learned that with synergy anything is possible.  This team of twenty high school students is leading the way in project innovation, creativity, problem solving, global awareness, critical thinking, communication, entrepreneurialism, and social responsibility.

We’ve also learned that we are all in this together.  No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.  This way of thinking is trickling up from the youth to the adults, from Ohio across the nation, from the USA across the globe.  We are helping to transform lives and the planet – let’s make it a positive change.