NOLS Alum to Denmark as part of SustainUS

Ellie Johnston, a senior at UNC Asheville and 2005 NOLS Pacific Northwest Semester Grad as well as Ben Wessel, a junior at Middlebury College and a 2006 Absaroka Backpacking Grad will join twenty-six other youth leaders from across the country at the United Nations Climate Change Negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark this December. Both of these students have been committed leaders on their campuses and have worked towards creating a healthy and safer environment.

The skills Ellie learned on her course were not solely confined to the 80-day course, but spilled into other areas of her life. “The leadership skills, working in a group and being a able to lead my peers on my NOLS course was essential in boosting my self-confidence and led me to partake in and lead regional and even national organizations at school.”

The most influential part of Ben’s NOLS course was the conversations he had with those who shared a passion for the wilderness and the environment and how they pursued these passions.

“It made it clear to me, young people can take action in a way that they see fit.”

The delegation to Copenhagen is a part of the internationally recognized SustainUS Agents of Change program, designed to facilitate youth involvement in international policymaking and advocate for a sustainable future (www.sustainUS.org). These young, sustainUS delegates are focused on the fact that it is ‘our’ future at stake.