New Zealand Science Teacher

Climate change a pressing concern for students

03/03/2015

Two Lincoln University students want to make a difference right now.

Maddy Albertson and Chester Potter care deeply about climate change.

The first-year Lincoln University students are keen to make a difference in the world, and both have recently been awarded Global Challenges Scholarships.

This makes them among the first students to take part in a new nationwide project designed to deal with big issues in a local, practical manner.

“We don’t want people to wait until they leave university before they start making a difference; we want them to be able to make a difference right now,” says Jeremy Baker, Lincoln University’s deputy vice-chancellor International and Business Development.

Along with 56 other students, Maddy and Chester will act as ambassadors for the Global Challenges Programme, which aims to highlight concerns such as food production and security, as well as resource depletion and pollution, and provide teaching resources to secondary schools.

The students are expected to liaise closely with the schools and take part in community work.

Both students are studying towards a Bachelor in Environment and Society and want to take action against climate change.

“Climate change links to every other problem in the world. It not only affects people, it affects economy, culture and every other part of our lives,” says Maddy, who hopes to work in politics in the future.

Fiona Scott, programme manager of SchoolsLinc, the university’s outreach programme, says the future of our world lies in the hands of young people.

“We want to capture students while they’re passionate about saving the world. A lot of young people care about these issues, but once they leave school, it can be overwhelming for them to know what to do and they give up. This programme gives them the opportunity to work with other students to identify global issues and find practical and local-level activities that can help solve them,” she says.