Gulfport High student has high hopes

Hurricane Katrina, the BP Oil Spill, the death of his mother and father within one year, navigating through the state’s foster care system, Antonio Green has experienced a lot during his 17 years here on Earth, but he’s not stuck in the past.

In fact, he’s looking forward to a brighter future for himself and all of us who live here in South Mississippi.

Seventeen-year-old Antonio Green has often found himself on the outside looking in. His mother died just four days after his 10^th birthday and his father passed away the next year. The BP Oil Spill happened right before his mother’s death and the effects of all of these events in his young life run deep and have been far reaching. In fact, his memories of the oil spill have even changed the way he looks at youngsters playing in the Gulf. “I remember that we used to go in the ocean and swim and sometimes we would see little oil spill places around the ocean and there was also the flesh eating bacteria.”

Antonio says he knows he can’t spend his life looking in the rear-view mirror. Instead he’s focused on what’s on the horizon: a brighter future.  This is what fuels him and is what led him to Iceland where he served as a member of the NAACP Coastal Youth Climate Justice Leaders Delegation. “We both have the same problems. Both of our sea levels are rising, but theirs is rising because of the glaciers and stuff like that and the reason the glaciers are melting is because of their energy use which is geothermal energy which is more environmentally friendly than our energy use,” said Antonio.

Antonio says regardless of what path he takes for his higher education, he plans to come back to the Coast so he can share his skills and education to make South Mississippi a better place to live. Friend Christine Brice said, “Just think about what he’s going to do for the people of Mississippi, he’s going to stay in Mississippi and make a difference in people’s lives.”

For Antonio Green, it appears the sky is the limit.