Connecting Green Teens

By Daphne Walker

While Champlain College’s Burlington campus focuses on going green, several Champlainers are involved in an environmental education collaboration bridging youth cultures an ocean apart. Green Across the Pacific (GATP), based in Shoreham, Vermont, is a summer environmental leadership exchange program that brings together high school students from Vermont and South China. Directed by Champlain College Adjunct Professor Peter Lynch, GATP recently underwent a Web site redesign at the hands of Champlain alumna Meagan Brown ’06 and her former instructor Sarah Pettitt, Web Management & Design program director at the College.

“We are really excited to see Meagan’s work come to life,” Lynch says. “The value of an effective site to us is huge.”

The satisfaction for Brown is reciprocal. “When I was given the opportunity to redesign the Web site for Green Across the Pacific, I was absolutely thrilled,” she says. “After getting to know Peter and the organization’s mission, I became inspired, not only to design a new Web site, but to develop an online presence for this community of parents, students, and teachers who share the true passion for Green Across the Pacific.”

Brown convinced her mentor Pettitt to participate by building an extensive back-end foundation for the site. “I don’t usually do this sort of thing,” Pettitt says. “But the nature of the work that Green Across the Pacific does, and the connection with the College, were compelling.”

GATP host sites alternate summers between Champlain College and the Affiliated High School of South China Normal University in Guangzhou, where 12 American teens and 12 Chinese teens, and their accompanying educators, study together in field research for three weeks. Students work in teams—one American student and one Chinese student—to present a final project to the larger group. With images of fieldwork, animals, plants, and scenery in Vermont and South China, and student artwork in Eastern and Western styles, Brown had a wealth of material to work with. “The spirit and enthusiasm of these Chinese and American kids is a joy to witness,” Brown says.

In addition to working with GATP, Brown, who is originally from Coventry, Vermont, is a Web developer at DR Power/Country Home Products in Vergennes.

To learn more about Green Across the Pacific, visit www.gatp.org. To view Meagan Brown’s portfolio, go to www.mgbdesigns.net

—Additional reporting by Kris Surette