By Randy Savoie

New Orleans Job Corps Center medical trainee Jessica Flores says she has always been interested in the environment and last week’s Green Fair just made her more passionate about “Going Green”

“I’ve always been interested in the environment,” says Jessica. “I’ve always been interested in recycling and cutting down our costs, cutting down our electrical uses. I got a chance to see the lightbulbs that we could switch to. What we could do to conserve energy and cut down own our bills.

Representatives from some of the city’s leading environmental groups- Habitat for Humanity, Louisiana Green Corps, Green Light New Orleans, Aquaponic and NOLA Green Roots as well as Entergy- New Orleans only Fortune 500 company- were on hand to inform students on their respective missions and encourage them to get involved this summer. It was all part of the Center’s Earth Week celebration.

“They talked about simple things that can make a big differnce like energy efficient lightbulbs, how if we step out of a room we should turn the lights off.” added Jessica, a Health Occupation Technology trainee. “Some light bulbs use a lot more energy than others. We already have the energy efficient light bullbs at my house.”

Says Culinary trainee James Antoine: “It was very educational, stressing things I did not know and now do know like how unplugging electronic devices when they are turned off can say energy and reduce the cost of your monthly bill.”