Celeste Tinajero: Environmental Teen Activist

Celeste Tinajero in an environmental teen activist. She believes that everyone should get involved and help the environment. “I want them to know and be on the side of environmentalism,’’ Celeste says in an interview. Celeste is part of an organization called ACE which stands for Alliance for Climate Education. She has even created her own campaign called Ban the Bag to get rid of plastic bags in her community. The organization also helps others to know why plastic bags are so bad for the community. Since Celeste’s school was so old and not ecologically friendly, she was even able to make the school more “green” and eco-friendly. ACE The organization Celeste is part of is called ACE (Alliance for Climate Education). ACE goes to high schools

A lot of high school students take part in ACE. They recruit between 50-100 school students each year and those students are then known as ACE Fellows or just fellows. Fellows meet weekly and they work with ACE and other partners to raise public support for climate action. They stand up for local climate problems and make people more aware of the climate change. They find solutions through speaking at events, they get petition signatures, they meet with elected officials, and they tell their peers and community members about their cause for climate change. Being a part of ACE has many benefits to the high school students. Fellows receive a $100 allowance per semester as well as receiving recommendation letters for colleges, building knowledge about climate science and solutions,

Her school was old and not ecologically friendly. She couldn’t bare to see her school like that. So she decided to do something about the problem. Celeste’s older brother , Hector, was one of the founders of the Eco Warriors. She went to support her brother one day then stayed because she loved it. The Eco Warriors was a green club at Celeste's school. They go out and try to make their school and community more ecologically friendly or as they like to call it ‘green’. They are even considered a role model for other green clubs in Washoe County School District because the club was recognized as the most active club at her high school. One of the main problems the school had was the bathrooms. The bathrooms had outdated toilets and faucets that leaked water everyday. To stop this problem, the Eco Warriors applied for a grant at GREENavada. In 2011, they received the $12,000 grant. With this money added new technology to their bathrooms. The dual flush toilets reduced the amount of gallons of water wasted per flush. From 6 gallons to only 1 gallon. The censored sinks they put in save water because there wouldn’t be people forgetting to turn the sinks off and the sink wouldn’t drip like the ‘knob’ facets did. The new automatic lights saved the energy wasted from the morning till 10 pm. They also added air hand dryers to save paper from being wasted. All these new renovations saved paper, water, money, and