A Rising Star For Sustainability

MOLLY MEISTER

Molly Meister is a public information officer in the DNR’s Office of Communications.

When most teenagers are still in their pajamas, having a slow start to their Sunday, Daphne Joyce Wu is already out the door.

On a chilly March morning, the 18-year-old is bundled up under a black parka, with gloves and white earmuffs, picking up discarded vaping cartridges, fast food wrappers and other trash scattered around the parking lot outside her school.

A senior at Middleton High School in a suburb outside of Madison, the student environmentalist is leading a small team of fellow classmates to clean up the planet one piece of litter at a time.

Although it’s their spring break, the group of five smile and laugh as they move swiftly across the parking lot with their trash grabbers, rapidly filling up their paper bags.

“I’ve always enjoyed the natural beauty of my area, especially at nearby parks and nature conservancies. But as I grew up, I started noticing litter all over the place and smoke in the air,” Wu said. “I started to see negative human impacts on the places I love, and I decided I needed to do something about it.”

Her environmental awareness only increased as time passed and she became a teenager. Instead of ignoring what she saw, though, Wu looked for solutions.

As a freshman, she noticed a lot of her classmates were throwing non-recyclable trash in the recycling bin at school.

“I started hanging up posters, trying to show people what could or could not be recycled,” she said. “As a result, the situation improved drastically, and it didn’t take me much time.”

What Wu was observing in her immediate surroundings was reinforced in her science classes, where she and her classmates watched documentaries and read articles about climate change, further fostering her interest in the environment and sustainability.

Fast-forward four years and one pandemic later, and Wu has become a prominent problem-solver with a growing team to help her tackle these challenges to decrease waste and increase sustainable practices.

“I decided I needed to do something about it,” Daphne Joyce Wu said of caring for her surroundings through activities such as trash pickup, recycling work and community involvement.

Nikki Hansen

WELCOME TO THE GREEN TEAM

Wu created Middleton High School’s Green Team, a student environmental club that has grown to more than 100 members and five subcommittees. This didn’t happen all at once. It took patience on her part and buy-in from her peers to start making a discernable impact, and the pandemic certainly didn’t help.

“During quarantine, participation was really low. Nobody wanted to spend an extra hour on Zoom,” Wu said. “I had very low expectations for this year because the numbers just weren’t there. We were lucky if we got 15 people.”

But momentum began building again for the Green Team.

“We were back in-person this year, and we reserved one of the big conference rooms in the library and still could not fit everyone in the room,” Wu said. “People actually had to stand outside and listen in.”

Wu’s growing army of activists is energized and getting things done.

Green Team projects include recycling used writing utensils and acquiring refillable markers to reduce plastic waste, hosting thrift clothing events to negate the effects of fast fashion, coordinating a sneaker recycling drive, posting sustainability tips around the school, and conducting environmental education efforts in partnership with a nearby elementary school.

Following her freshman year, Wu set her sights on an even bigger goal: leading the charge for the Middleton- Cross Plains Area School District to adopt a sustainability resolution.

With help from her environmental science teacher, Leah Williams, and others, Wu drafted the resolution and saw it through the lengthy approval process. The school district formally adopted it in March 2021.

Some of the resolution’s benchmarks include reducing district-wide landfill waste by 35% through sustainable practices by 2025 and meeting 100% of all district operations energy needs with renewable energy by 2035.

Spurred by efforts from Daphne Joyce Wu, the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District adopted a sustainability resolution that aims to reduce the district’s landfill waste 35% by 2025.

Nikki Hansen

WORKING FOR THE FUTURE

Wu gets high praise for her dedication to sustainability and her work to get others involved.

“Daphne is the most driven student I have worked with in my 11 years at Middleton High School,” Williams said. “Her biggest strength is building up and encouraging her peers to become sustainability leaders so that when she graduates, these goals and endeavors will continue to positively impact our district and community.”

The sustainability resolution, 2½ years in the works, will make an impact long into the future, Williams added. Developing and implementing a sustainability resolution is a multiyear project that will continue to inform district decisions and policies, with Wu having a key role in its passage by the district.

“Daphne was instrumental in making sure a wide range of voices were at the table with respect to its drafting and continues to work with district leadership to build on the goals outlined,” Williams said. “She is not intimidated by the scope of the project but sees it as an opportunity for the larger community to get involved.”

Wu also isn’t afraid to reach beyond her own school district to promote sustainability.

“During the process of passing the resolution, I was feeling lonely,” she said. “So I reached out to science teachers across Dane County to get in touch with other student environmentalists like me.”

Those efforts blossomed into the Dane County Youth Environmental Committee, a 54-member network of student activists representing 18 area high schools, with a goal of working toward a more sustainable future.

Aside from networking and idea-sharing, they recently co-organized the Glasgow to Dane County Conference, bringing the United Nations’ conversation around climate change from Glasgow, Scotland, to Wisconsin.

Middleton’s Daphne Joyce Wu, 18, has shown environmental awareness and dedication from an early age.

Nikki Hansen

‘IT’S NOT JUST ME’

After graduating high school in early June, Wu plans to attend Yale University for environmental studies focusing on public policy and a potential minor in economics. As this chapter closes, Wu reflects on her journey over the past four years.

“What makes me most proud is that now it’s not just me leading every project,” she said. “We have many student leaders who are pursuing their own projects and seeking solutions to the challenges they see.”

Wu has just the right advice for people of any age wanting to make a difference.

“For those who want to help but don’t know where to start, make a list of things you notice in your life you really think could change, then think through how you can address those problems. That will motivate others to join you,” she said.

“When other people notice what you're doing, they often want to help, and then you can start really developing a sustainability culture in your community. The more buy-in you have, the bigger impact you’re going to make, and that’s the best feeling in the world.”