Mansfield Patch's Whiz Kid of the Week: Lexie Raczka

The zeitgeist of the United States, in recent years, has developed into a yearning for environmentally friendly goods and services. We are in a transition period from a time of little consideration for how much our everyday actions affect the future of our planet to a time of finding the best ways to protect it. While many people are now vocal about change, not everyone acts on their beliefs. That is not the case for one young woman from Mansfield who is being recognized for her environmental contributions.

Lexie Raczka, a senior at Mansfield High School has toiled away to educate her peers and her community on ways to become more environmentally conscious. She has worked with Green Schools for two years and was selected by Director Robin Organ as co-president of the program’s student ambassadors, a role which she shined in.

“Lexie came to Green Schools as a student who was passionate about the environment and global climate change,” said Organ in an email. “She wanted to ‘do something that would make a difference.’”

Raczka also founded an environmental club at MHS. The Green Earth Hornets convene to discuss and plan projects that will benefit the school and the community, including a green house which they hope will be used as an outdoor, hands-on classroom.

Her commitment and determination is why she was selected as a Green Difference Award winner and a Volunteer Award winner.

Green Schools Third Annual Green Difference Awards will be held at MHS on May 23. Raczka was nominated for the Green Student Award by her principal, Dr. Joseph Maruszczak. Winners are environmental stewards of all ages who must meet certain criteria.

“They really need to make a significant impact in their community,” said Organ.

The Volunteer Award is hosted by Women in Development (WID) which is an organization made up of development professionals in the Greater Boston area. The award is given to a youth volunteer who represents what the group believes in.

“The nomination criteria for the Volunteer Award is that they demonstrate personal leadership to advance, create, promote or inspire the program or projects of the organization served,” said Catherine Cragg, Development Associate at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and member of WID in a phone interview. “Also, they mobilize others to participate in the organization and they commit to an extraordinary length of service and devotion to the organization.”

Raczka, who was nominated for the award by Organ, was the one student who they felt most fit those criteria. She will be honored today at WID’s annual spring event at the Colonnade Hotel.

This young environmentalist’s drive was inspired by her seventh grade science class with Meredith Azevedo whose husband, Keith Azevedo was the Environmental Issues teacher at MHS at the time. He was creating a bio-diesel bus with some of his students and Raczka’s class had the chance to get involved.

Her passion was further developed when her ninth grade science class watched An Inconvenient Truth.

“That really hit it home,” said Raczka who was determined from that point on to make a difference.

For her senior project, she calculated the carbon footprint of MHS and came up with a plan to reduce it. She held a “green week” at school to implement some of her ideas, such as bringing waste-free lunches, walking to school and donating old sneakers to Nike’s Reuse a Shoe Program to be used as athletic field surfaces.

“I also created a full plan that I’m giving to different administrators outlining different solutions and the economic benefit and the environmental benefit so they can take that and hopefully implement things,” said Raczka.

She will be attending Dickinson College in the fall to study Environmental Science. She will leave the high school knowing that she has done her part to promote change.

“Lexie leaves Mansfield High School and the Green Schools Organization as a young lady who has deeply impacted her community and others across the state of Massachusetts and beyond because of her undying commitment to environmental wellness for our planet and its occupants,” said Organ. “Lexie will be successful at whatever she puts her heart and mind into.”