Connecting Cultures to Combat Climate Change

My name is Jasmin Gilliam. I’m a junior at Science Leadership Academy and I am from Philadelphia. 

 

I’m a part of Women in Natural Sciences or WINS for short. We have Mongolian pen pals. There’s fifteen of them in a ROOTs program over in Mongolia in partnership with the National Mongolia Museum. They sent five girls over and my partner got the opportunity to come to America. 

 

My name is Lhagvadulam. I’m 16 years old. I am from Mongolia. And this experience is very important in my life because I would like to be an environmental researcher.

 

Well, this grant is for a year program and part of the program is that every month we have lessons that we share through the computer. We’ve had a couple of Skyping sessions, so they have been learning not only by their visit here but all other 15 girls over there and here. Everybody has to go through a series of lessons that have to do with climate change and cultural aspects of both countries.

 

And sometimes in Philadelphia we don’t see the repercussions of that change as much as they are seeing it in Mongolia. 

 

Mongolians are the nomads and they have lived thousands of years involving their animals and finding the best grass for their animals. The grass is no longer growing well, the weeds are growing more and now this lifestyle is in threat. 

 

So both of the girls are exchanging ideas and then they’re learning and expanding their knowledge and sharing their knowledge and increasing their awareness about the climate change. That is the goal we are aiming to. 

 

I think it’s important especially for people our age, the youth, because we are going to be leaders of the world in like about 10 years.  And we need to know how our world is going to be like. It’s opened my eyes to how people on the other side of the world are. 

 

Before the Mongolian program, I thought that they didn’t have as much technology, but we have basically the same things. 

 

And at some point one of my girls made the comment, she says, “You know, they’re just like us.” And it’s like, yes, it’s true! You know ,sometimes we think they’re so removed, that they are going to be so different, And of course there are differences, but really, they’re just like us. 

 

My name is Linda Gutierrez I’m from New Mexico, Albuquerque and I’m going to Mongolia on July to study more of the climate and learn more about the culture. And it’s really exciting. I didn’t know I was going to be one of the five girls to be chosen. So I’m really excited. 

 

The end product is that every girl, as a team of girls, has to come up with a presentation that they will either do in the museum and/or the community. Obviously, the other part is the connection that the girls will have. That hopefully, will have repercussions and it just becomes a big web of people that are talking to each other and that’s something that’s a little harder to measure.