Senior Emiglio Icabalceta has paved a way for students to become involved in FCCPS environment initiatives through his work at Better at the Bins.
Icabalceta took over the role of running Better at the Bin, an environmental initiative to encourage students to dispose of waste sustainably. The initiative implemented special trash bins at the entrance of the cafeteria, which have specific sorted sections for each type of trash. This change replaced the previous procedure of having large grey bins for trash and blue bins for recycling in the cafeteria, which often led to trash getting mixed up and not properly disposed of.
“They were looking for new leadership, and I was like… I could tie this back into system thinking and design thinking, why not run it for the whole year?” Icabalceta commented.
After taking over the role of leading Better at the Bins, Icabalceta took initiative to reach out to other students and staff to help take part in environmental action.
“I tried to do as much as I could,” Icabalceta explained. “I was talking to students that were interested, volunteers for anything and everything.”
Through his extensive environmental and volunteer work, Icabalceta has been able to relate his passions about the environment to his love for design and engineering.
“This last weekend I came back from the University of Cincinnati from an engineering showcase that I was invited to. It was amazing. It’s an affordable school, so it’s probably gonna be the one,” Icabalceta recalled. “I just love the campus. It’s a big, big sports school. I’m gonna have fun playing intramural sports.”
Along with being focused on academics, Icabalceta is also an active player on the Meridian basketball team.
“I’ve been playing for all four years in JV and varsity… [My sister] is my biggest inspiration for basketball and for so many other things.”
Driven by his various interests and love for design, Icabalceta has established environmental initiatives for Meridian and has created a way for students to become involved in helping the environment and our school system.
“Civic engagement is not something that a lot of kids my age think about. And I think it’s extremely important and this idea of interconnectedness to me is woven through the system I’ve built through Better at the Bin, through my support systems, through teachers, through basketball, through family. It’s been a great journey.”
