- Danny Kanso
- Dunwoody High School, senior
Danny Kanso spends most of his time planning for the future. Danny founded the Dunwoody Environmental Coalition in 2009, dedicated to teaching the importance of sustainability. The organization now has 60 members.
Danny was appointed to the City of Dunwoody Sustainability Commission 10 months ago, filling the position left vacant by the former director of the Dunwoody Nature Center.
Danny’s biggest project, however, is Grow Dunwoody, a student-led, community driven effort to develop an organic gardening program in which all schools in the Dunwoody cluster will participate.
The idea for Grow Dunwoody originated in the courtyards of Dunwoody High School, which Danny is turning into organic vegetable gardens.
“These on-campus, under-utilized green spaces are the perfect place to make raised beds for planting and cultivating food,” Danny said.
Danny was inspired by “the breadth of talent [that] was readily available within [the] city’s student body.” There are more than 7000 students in the Dunwoody cluster of schools.
“As a result, I began pooling together all of the resources available within Dunwoody to empower our youth to break down the bureaucracy behind our school system, and to put education directly in the hands of our community,” Danny said.
The goal of Grow Dunwoody is simple: to integrate hands-on learning into science, wellness and special education; to produce renewable classroom and community resources; and to instill sustainable practices and values within the student body. In developing Grow Dunwoody, he sought to improve the City of Dunwoody’s effect on Dunwoody schools.
“We aim to facilitate the transition to hands-on learning within all subjects, to incorporate all community resources into our school system, and to make our schools fully sustainable, so that we may use all of our system resources to achieve the utmost level of efficiency,” Danny said.
Danny used the Dunwoody Environmental Coalition, which is partnered with Georgia Perimeter College, to build support for Grow Dunwoody. The program is now backed by five organizations—the Dunwoody Nature Center, the Dunwoody Chamber of Commerce, the Community Garden at Brook Run, the Upper Chattahoochee River Keeper and the National Wildlife Federation—and it’s still growing.
“Beyond [the] goal [of Grow Dunwoody], we seek to transform the culture of learning in all subjects in Dunwoody schools, and in schools across our county, state and nation,” Danny said.
Though Danny dedicates the majority of his time to Grow Dunwoody, he is involved in various other activities, focusing on service. Danny has volunteered at the Dunwoody Nature Center since 2008 and is the president of both the Dunwoody Student Volunteer Organization and the DHS Key Club. He also founded the school’s robotics team.
What’s Next:
Danny plans on dedicating himself to finding solutions, working to promote sustainability, liberty and prosperity. In the future, he would like to work in public service.
“I am naturally inclined to find solutions, and I can think of no problems larger than those by which our government is encumbered. All philosophy, economic theory, science – everything eventually is applied back to the government, and that makes it infinitely interesting, because it is always evolving with our society,” Danny said.