Mission Viejo students who started a campus recycling program featured on State Farm website

Here’s a little inspiration just in time for Earth Day.

State Farm, the insurance and financial services company, has posted a story on its Good Neighbors website featuring two enterprising Orange County students who started their own schoolwide recycling initiative with help from OCDE’s Inside the Outdoors program.

4_zpsd7qxfsqnLast year, Arya Jemal and Alison Chen of Mission Viejo High School decided to make their campus more environmentally friendly, so they reached out to the Inside the Outdoors Foundation’s Youth Stewardship Council for ideas.

From there, they began generating support for recycling through presentations to students, administrators, local leaders and parents. They also used STEM-based principles to design a logo and study the foot-traffic patterns of their classmates in order to maximize the placement of recycling bins.

A longtime supporter of Inside the Outdoors, State Farm provides funding that benefits the Youth Stewardship Council, which in turn brings together students from area high schools who share an interest in conservation and sustainability.

You can check out the story here, or by visiting goodneighbors.com, State Farm’s news and information website highlighting good deeds in the community.