On Friday, April 18, 2025, Berkeley High School hosted a Climate Justice Training Workshop for ninth grade students to attend. There were workshops that focused on creativity, art, math, science and writing. Hosted by BHS librarian Meredith Irby and BHS alumni Sara Shor, this workshop assisted students in strategizing with club leaders to push for change in their communities.
Irby wanted to highlight how much planning must go into creating change. An example used in the workshop was how much planning went into the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, a significant event in the Civil Rights Movement. Irby described the reason why they used this event as an example for this workshop. “(There was) an incredible amount of organizing that went into it,” Irby said.
Irby had made the decision to broaden the workshop out of just focusing on climate change since the reality is that not everyone is passionate about the same cause.
“I feel like this workshop was not just focusing on climate change, but was also focusing on action for any form of discrimination, or any other cause,” Irby said. “We broadened it because we realized that these principles can be applied to really any movement.”
At the same time, the facilitators of the workshop tried to put these activism values into the perspective of climate change as well. Azucena Uribe, president of the Sunrise Club at BHS and attendee of the workshop, connected the workshop to world events that have been happening related to climate change. The Sunrise Club is the BHS chapter of a national organization, the Sunrise Movement, focusing on fighting climate change through political action.
“I incorporated the issue of climate change in this workshop by conveying the urgency of this crisis such as the recent climate disasters (like) the LA wildfires,” Uribe said.
From the perspective of one of the upperclassmen leaders there at the workshop, BHS senior Phoebe Dedlow, co-president of the Women’s Student Union, shared what the objective of the workshop was. “The point of it was to help freshmen learn how to organize campaigns, (and) also (learn of) the resources that BHS has and overall how to go about making change in their community,” Dedlow said. One of the sole purposes for having this workshop is for freshmen at BHS to understand that change will not happen overnight; there must be planning that goes into fighting for the cause that students believe in.
Elena Trebbi, a BHS freshman who attended the workshop, found it extremely helpful and uplifting to have upperclassmen at the workshop showing the attendees how they can make a difference in their community. “Seeing upperclassmen so engaged and passionate about climate justice made the issue feel more urgent,” she said.
Irby explained that one of the reasons why she wanted the upperclassmen to come to the workshop was because it is easier to feel like students can make a difference when there are other students close in age that have fought for what they believe in. “Having that mentorship (from upperclassmen) is really important and really helpful to show our freshmen what our upperclassmen are working on and thinking about and getting (freshmen) activated and interested in participating in those clubs,” Irby said.