Journal-News.com

Nearly 100 Lakota East and West high school students attended the 2008 International Education Summit to learn about emerging careers in global sustainability.

The Nov. 21 conference at the Northern Kentucky University had speakers from area businesses, organizations and government entities.

"I learned the volume of companies there are that are involved in (environmental sustainability) not only nationally, but also locally, said West junior Graham Beckley.

One of his favorite parts of the conference was a break-out session on renewable energy, which included the future of wind technology, he said.

"It would create a lot of jobs on a huge scale," Beckley said.

And while his goal is to pursue Information Technology, he said this conference helped show him the possibilities of turning into a global career.

"I could use the skills I learn in college and go wherever I want," he said. "Whatever you learn, if you apply it globally, a lot more employees will be looking your way."

The keynote speaker of the conference was Chris Flavin, president of Worldwatch Institute, and the theme was trying to educate and recruit a future workforce to meet the demand of a new greener economy.

Lakota East Senior Jon Deak said the students from East who attended are in physics and advanced placement biology. His goal is to study environmental sciences with an emphasis in ecology.

"I took away that there's too much population to meet the resources," he said. "The first step is to manage population, because there is too much consuming and not enough conservation."

A session most interesting to him was on biomimicry. He saw an example of a building in Asia, shaped like an ant hill to conserve heat. Another building had a flower-like structure catching excess rain water.

East junior Drew McClary said his favorite part was on alternative energies and new technology.

"It surprised me that there are apparently homes that are completely run off of environmental energy," he said.

McClary said he also appreciated talking to industry professionals.

"They had a lot of discussion on how you could get a green job and that was really interesting," he said. "I talked to the vice president of Duke Energy (Russell Cambell, vice president of power deliver engineering) and it was really interesting talking to someone who, in the green movement, you would normally demonize."

Now, McClary said he better understands the power grid and the needs of Duke energy, as well as efforts they are making to utilize more alternative power sources.

"I just thought it was an interesting conference," he said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5067 or lhilty@coxohio.com.