Urban Assembly School for Green Careers student, Shavajah Del Rio, speaks on behalf of her classmates at the ribbon cutting for her new school.
At the Urban Assembly School for Green Careers, students will learn to retrofit buildings to make them more energy efficient.
It's just one of the ways the new Upper West Side high school will prepare students for green industry jobs.
“Before, I didn’t notice how much sustainability affects us all,” a 14-year-old, Nailah Guerra, said. She said she enjoys her new school because of the personalized attention she receives and because she has always been an “outdoors person.”
Green Careers opened on the Brandeis High School Campus last month, and has 100 students in its freshman class. It is one of four schools recently designated as demonstration sites for new approaches to Career and Technical Education. As a demonstration site, it will model innovative approaches to preparing students for 21st century careers.
"We want our students to learn to think differently about what is possible when they leave school," Principal Alexandra Rathmann-Noonan said.
Fifteen-year-old Anthony Donis, who dreams of creating his own community garden someday, said that after completing projects like a report on water quality he feels like he is “building a better world.”
"I love that I get to make new friends and meet new people here with similar interests," he said.