Sustainability Spotlight: Carol Flora at Lincoln High School
Our latest spotlight is shining on Carol Flora at Lincoln High School! Flora has been with LPS for the last 16 years, initially teaching at North Star High School before making the move to LHS. Now in her sixth year at Lincoln High, she sponsors two student clubs: Feminists for Change and Community Youth Collaborative. Flora and student club members incorporate sustainability concepts into the clubs’ diverse goals and outreach efforts, working to support, uplift, and educate within their school and their community.
Community Youth Collaborative focuses on uplifting BIPOC and ally voices within Lincoln High School and beyond.
Their mutual aid efforts include backpack collection and distribution in partnership with the school’s Community Learning Center and a pantry of produce grown on school grounds. Mutual aid also takes the form of their annual Harvesting Hope/Nourishing November initiatives. Flora shared that students collect and distribute donations of holiday gifts, food, and other necessities “so we can nourish families in need at Lincoln High.”
The club also works to implement civic science into its community-focused programming. They are currently exploring ways to collect soil samples at Lincoln High and other schools in the district, with the ultimate goal of storytelling and problem-solving with the data they compile.
Feminists For Change regularly partners with UNL student organizations and explores the legislative and practical efforts required to effect social change.
“We work really hard to uplift marginalized voices,” Flora shared, going on to say that one of the group’s goals is “eradicating period poverty at Lincoln High.” Club members collect funding for and donations of period products so that any student in need of the products has easy, free access to them.
Interest in reusable period products has been on the rise lately, and Feminists For Change is stepping up to improve overall sustainability as they meet student needs.
The two groups collaborated last year to organize the school’s first Turtle Island Earth Celebration. The project got its start in Flora’s social studies classroom when she led an examination of the Sky Woman Falling human origin story. Students began to dig deeper into the story’s focus on Turtle Island and made the connection to existing Earth Day celebrations in the Lincoln area.
Club members ran with the idea of promoting sustainability and STEAM education through a parade, collaborating to “engineer… parade floats that promote sustainability, the environment, and their message.”
Their final turtle-shaped float was made up entirely of repurposed materials like cardboard, scrap wood, and clothing. Building the float, as well as organizing and promoting the event, allowed students to explore the overlap between sustainability and broader STEAM concepts, practice civic science skills, and collaborate with community partners.
"This year, we’re wanting to go bigger."
Last year’s event earned Flora and her students awards from The Union for Contemporary Art and Humanities Nebraska, and 2024’s Turtle Island Earth Celebration is set to impress yet again!
The upcoming Celebration will take the form of a parade from Lincoln High to Woods park that culminates in a STEAM Chautauqua. Flora shared that the word “Chautauqua” comes from the Iroquois language and communicates a “[tying] together… that everything fits.”
These events originated as part of a rural education movement in the early 1900s, and Community Youth Collaborative’s STEAM Chautauqua will highlight BIPOC voices and allies while sharing STEAM educational programming. Local organizations will share their knowledge with the community through booths and activities at Woods Park.
Flora and her students are planning for one such educational opportunity to feature a virtual tour of Lincoln High School’s Community Healing Garden.
The garden was planted in 2020 as a collaborative effort between Community Youth Collaborative and Lincoln High’s Community Learning Center. As student interest grew, Lincoln High’s Garden Club was founded.
Garden Club members now manage the upkeep of the Community Healing Garden’s variety of crops and Nebraska-native plantings. Produce grown in the garden is distributed via Community Youth Collaborative’s mutual aid pantry.
The idea to digitize the Community Healing Garden arose when Flora began to question the best way to share the space, as well as student and Indigenous knowledge about its plantings, with a broader audience. The digitization process will provide an opportunity for club members to interface with VR imaging and 3D scanning technologies, as well as to learn about the traditional medicinal and ceremonial uses for each plant.
This kind of outreach effort is possible because of Flora’s consistent commitment to both sustainability and her students.
She says that the clubs’ partnership with the CLC has also been a key component of their success and outreach. Even if things seem uncertain at first, Flora advocates for getting started and sticking with it.
"Now that we've been going for a few years, it is sustainable."
For schools with new or limited sustainability-focused club activity, she recommends looking to students for inspiration, saying that “talking with students… gaining their knowledge and what they are interested in doing” can really solidify a club’s direction: “you plant the seed and it blooms.”
Thank you to Carol Flora for helping to further sustainability connections in the classroom and the community! To support the work being done by Community Youth Collaborative and Feminists for Change, visit Lincoln High’s CLC Website or the school’s 2023-24 Club Brochure. The Community Youth Collaborative: Turtle Island Celebration Facebook page also has frequent updates about club milestones and upcoming events!
Updated October 3, 2023
