Laguna Blanca School 2007 alumna, recent Middlebury College graduate and sustainability leader Katie Romanov has won the title of America’s Next Eco-Star, a contest sponsored by SmartPower and the U.S. Department of Energy to unveil the next generation of energy leaders.

Romanov won out among 130 other college/university students who had been nominated by their institutions across the country. This Friday, she will return to Laguna Blanca to kick off the Middle School Environmental Service Day with an inspirational talk about environmental leadership, followed by a green building workshop with students.

Romanov’s journey toward becoming America’s Next Eco-Star started on a 54-acre farm in rural Pennsylvania, where she says her interest in the environment first started to bloom. During high school, she spent a semester abroad at the Island School, a sustainability program in the Bahamas where students learn to compost their food, garden, keep tabs on on-site wind and solar energy, and generate biodiesel from used vegetable oil discarded from cruise ships. The Island School is where Romanov says she became inspired to implement basic changes in her local community once returning home.

At Laguna Blanca, Romanov won the coveted award for the Best Senior Project. Her polished senior project presentation reflected her passion for the environment and her work for the Community Environmental Council, which involved multifaceted and sometimes technical tasks that she tackled with enthusiasm and competence.

Among her many contributions in her short time with the organization were diagrams illustrating community energy that the CEC will use in its efforts to make Santa Barbara Fossil Free by 2033.

“Katie embodies the Laguna ideals of character and commitment as she inspires us all to think globally and act locally,” Laguna Senior Project Director Trish McHale said.

One of her most noteworthy accomplishments was during her last two years at Middlebury College when she served as the communications and outreach coordinator for the Solar Decathlon team and made it possible for her department to win first place in the communications division. Her duties included spreading the word about Middlebury’s Solar Decathlon house, Self-Reliance (named after an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson on questioning the status quo), and educating the public on the appeal and accessibility of green buildings. Romanov’s team attended conferences in Chicago and the Bahamas, directed hands-on green building activities with school groups, updated an active website and blog for the project and raised $600,000 along the way.

Since her graduation at Middlebury in February, Romanov has attended the National Green Schools Conference, the Vail Global Energy Summit and the Opening Plenary Session for the Clinton Global Initiative University, where she met with 1,200 other students from around the world to discuss their respective environmental and humanitarian efforts. There, she was able to hear from founder Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Usher, Jon Stewart, Sean Penn and other public figures.

Her dream is to pursue her passion of environmental education, making it the norm for students across the country to learn about energy sources, distribution, efficiency, consumption and management of the systems on their very own campuses. She returns to Laguna to do just that this Friday!

Environmental Service Day at Laguna Blanca

After hearing from Romanov, LBS students in fifth through 12th grade will reach out to Santa Barbara via environmental community service. Small groups will head out to accomplish:

» beach cleanup from Hendrys Beach to Hope Ranch beach

» beach cleanup from More Mesa Beach to HR beach

» trail maintenance in the Hope Ranch beach area

» poppy/habitat restoration with the Audubon Society

» set up and run Earth Day Festival booths at the LBS Lower School annual Earth Day Festival

» clean the harbor via kayak with Channel Island Outfooters

» garden at Fairview Gardens

» do a creek survey with SB Channel Keeper at Sycamore Canyon Creek

» cleanup trail heads and set up an information station at Cold Springs or Ramiro trailheads with Montecito Trails Foundation

» green building workshop with America’s Eco-Star Katie Romanov (LBS Class of 2007)

After their work in the community, students will return to the Hope Ranch Beach for a Sustainable BBQ, provided by parents who are donating homegrown and locally grown and harvested, organic produce.

— Tara Broucqsault is the director of communications for Laguna Blanca School.