The newest club at Cartersville High School is celebrating the end of its first year in a splendid display of color and hope. The Environmental Science Club (ESC) is proud to display a new mural in the school celebrating the small actions we can take within our own community to make the world a greener and more beautiful place.
ESC President Vivana Vest shared, “A lot of the environmental issues today are really big, and they’re not really in our control, but we can focus on what we can in our little community.”
After collecting recyclable materials throughout the semester, the club came together to bring their vision to life. Everyday items that would have likely filled the local landfill now make up the Earth in splendid greens and blues, as a rainbow shines through a radiant, star-filled sky. Clouds taper off at the end of the rainbow to spell out the year, 2026. A red dot represents our home, Cartersville, Georgia.
In total, 10 hours were invested in ensuring that every detail was something CHS could be proud of. After school, members of the club filed into one of the physics classrooms, where they worked together to sort through materials, cut them into smaller pieces for the collage, and determine where each piece should be placed before hot-gluing them all together. On the last day, one of the adult sponsors, Leigh Anne Neal, brought in cookies to celebrate the students’ final push to complete the project.
When asked what they hoped future students would remember when they saw the mural and the signatures of all the ESC members who helped to put it together on the back, Vice President Ayah Hadbawi said, “I hope in the future, people look at us not as pioneers, but as people who genuinely wanted to make a change and set their minds to it to make it happen.
“The Environmental Science Club was created to bring attention to environmental problems in our community, and specifically in our school. We wanted to bring awareness, and we wanted it to make a change, no matter how small.”
The student organization has certainly left its mark, even though the club is still getting off the ground. From the contributions ESC made to the Annual Lake Allatoona Cleanup to the new community garden they helped start near the front of the school, the foundation has been laid for the Environmental Science Club to do even more amazing things in the future. Keep your eyes peeled for more field trips and opportunities to get out into nature and truly make a difference.
If you are interested in joining the Environmental Science Club, please reach out to staff advisor Mr. Spratt or new ESC president Maggie Sheffield for more information, or check out the Environmental Science Club Instagram, @cville.enviornmental
