Last August in this space, I lauded the great work being done by the student activists behind the Campus Climate Challenge, a project of more than 30 leading youth organizations throughout the US. As it turns out, these young visionaries were just getting started.

The Campus Climate Challenge recently wrapped up its first year of pushing colleges and universities to become models for the kind of clean energy revolution needed to halt the global warming crisis. The Challenge has engaged millions of students from across the United States and Canada and helped fuel a dramatic increase in concern about climate change among the media, elected officials and the general public.

And the hard results so far are impressive: 285 colleges committed to becoming climate neutral through the Presidents Climate Commitment, a set of principles put forth by an ad-hoc group of college and university presidents. Check out a nifty map that shows which schools are participating, and click here if you’re a student and you want to start your own campaign.

As the Challenge moves into its second year, it’s launched a new online advocacy community to further engage students in the movement to stop global warming and provide them with tools and resources to effectively mobilize their political muscle. A groundbreaking effort in open-source organizing, the new site combines advocacy tools with social networking functions to empower young people to cut global warming pollution on their campuses and in their communities. Check it out at www.climatechallenge.org.