Just 19 months after the start of design, Stoddert Elementary School's modernized and expanded campus in northwest Washington, DC reopened, welcoming back the school and its community. Featuring spaces that had been missing since the school was founded in 1932, such as a gym, cafeteria, and library/media center and up-to-date building systems and technology, the campus serves 300 students as a school by day and the diverse urban neighborhood as a community center, operated by the Department of Parks & Recreation, after hours. Designed with the District's first ground source heat pump system, the campus achieved LEED for Schools Gold with its pervasive daylight, views to the surrounding landscape, enhanced classroom acoustics, FSC casework, recycled content in the building's materials and low-flow water fixtures. However, the most powerful argument for developing the sustainable design features of the campus was to allow the students to really engage sustainability hands-on, learning from their new environment and interacting with the people who helped to design and build it. As a microcosm of the world, Stoddert's approach helps the students understand that they will grow up in a world where energy issues must be approached in a cooperative, international manner in order to achieve positive outcomes. Considering that many may return abroad with this knowledge, Stoddert's students can become global ambassadors of sustainable design and development.