Ruth Cameron (23) , United Kingdom

Background: When selected Ruth was the President of the Edinburgh Student Union, and during her time as Climate Change Ambassador Ruth was recruited by The Stop Climate Chaos Coalition to be their Scottish Co-ordinator.

The Project: Ruth worked on a communication campaign to raise awareness on climate change solutions. The campaign centred around a pledge card to encourage consumers to cut carbon emissions in the home, from walking instead of driving to washing clothes at 30° instead of 40°.

Ruth shared her experience in the Arctic with national media interviews (BBC Scotland, Scotland on Sunday, Edinburgh Evening News) and regional media (Glasgow Herald, Edinburgh University Magazine, the Stornoway Gazette, the Southern Reporter and the Scottish Green Party magazine). The Scottish Green Party lodged a motion of congratulations to Ruth for her achievements at the College. Ruth also gave lectures to the Green Party and to her University.

The Target: The target was to recruit 500 e-campaigners to support WWF’s climate change campaign. Ruth signed up 2000!

Ruth Shares Her Experience:
Q.What did you gain personally from being part of the College?
Ruth: Friends. Knowledge. But above all I don’t think you can underestimate the power of having a story to tell. The College experience has, in itself, given each of us a story to tell too - an opening into conversations with people that can often lead to debate and action.

Q. What was the most important lesson you learnt at the College?
Ruth: I learnt that in order to persuade people to take action in their own lives, you have to tap in to what their personal motivation is. The college taught me that everyone has a different trigger for taking action - for some people it’s reasons of faith or religion, others care about species extinction and the destruction of habitats, others are motivated purely by economics. For some people it may be as simple as being a golf fan and not wanting their links course to be lost to rising sea levels. There is no right or wrong reason, but I learnt that a good campaigner will at least try and appeal to people individually.

Q.How are you using those skills now?
Ruth: My appointment at Stop Climate Chaos Scotland Co-ordinator owes a huge amount to my experience with the college, as does my selection as a Parliamentary candidate for the Scottish Green Party - and in both those roles I will be doing a huge amount of climate change campaigning - hopefully making a measurable and significant difference.

Click here to read Ruth’s 2006 Blog