San Jose Clean Energy – a program of the City of San Jose that is dedicated to improving air quality, reducing pollution and fighting climate change – recently celebrated its 5-year anniversary at San Jose City Hall, and Notre Dame was invited to participate in the reception.  The Clean & Green Club embraced the opportunity by creating the opening poem, “You’ve Got Great Energy, San Jose.”

Clean & Green club members Rose ’25 and Maya ’25 co-wrote the thoughtful and inspiring poem, which was delivered to the audience by Ca ’25. Her delivery – in front of a large crowd of dignitaries, including the mayor and members of the city council – was simply incredible. She was poised, articulate and brimming with hope, and some audience members were moved to tears! Please enjoy the poem below.

You've Got Great Energy, San Jose
By Notre Dame’s Clean & Green Club

We watch our world decay
Using fossil fuels every day
Our world is held hostage
But we still have courage

Sometimes teens say: what can we do?
We’re just in high school, we are too few.
That’s not our group
As Clean and Green, we stand so tall
We answer this world’s desperate call… to action

In daily choices, we hold a key
We reduce, reuse, and recycle, we plea
We choose veggies over meat, a mindful feast
We conserve energy and let wasteful habits cease
We hop on a bus, a train, or even a tram
We love public transit, it’s a low-carbon plan
We learn that small choices matter
This knowledge empowers

And then, come organizations like yours
They say “You’ve got great energy San Jose”
So we say: Yes we do! 
We’ll do all we can to help you
We’ll bring youth together to learn as a team
We’ll take action to make our world green
We see the solution; it becomes so clear:
San Jose Clean Energy is right here!

We love learning from organizations like yours
Which opens all your doors
To us, the youth of San Jose
To fight and stay, we won’t go away. 
You know it, equity is the key
Solving the issues that face our community
We fight climate change in the form of unity

It’s been five years, and you’re still here
Because we know, and you know the world isn’t waiting for anyone
To SJ youth, your work inspires
We hope you never tire…
Helping those who need it most
You work towards our world’s health, a remedy.

To San Jose Clean Energy!