It’s going to be another green school year thanks to these teens!
Last month, 35 youth leaders from all over LA gathered on our hilltop for our annual Youth Leadership & Eco Club Summit. It was a great day watching students build leadership skills and network with other like-minded teens.
Our goal was simple. The event served to help inspire and guide these young leaders and their campus Eco Clubs. We shared how partnering with TreePeople could help make their vision come to life to make positive environmental changes on their campuses and in their communities by planting and caring for trees and gardens, recycling waste, capturing water and more!
Youth Inspiring Youth
The event opened with Youth Leader veteran, Isabel Zavian who spoke about her work and accomplishments during her two years working with our program.
Isabel is a senior in high school now and is making big strides in the environmental world. She inspired fellow youth leaders as she shared the new website she developed to connect other youth leaders to environmental organizations in LA and provide environmental awareness tips to make our city more sustainable. You could feel the excitement in the room. After Isabel finished speaking, other students rushed up to talk to her, shake her hand and share their project ideas.
Getting to Work
Learning about poppies, different soil types, good ways to recycle water and how to build more eco-friendly communities was extremely valuable. Oh, and I can’t forget about the native plants!
– Youth Leader, Craig Crampa
During the Summit, we also modeled activities from our TreePeople Project Toolkits and discussed fun ideas for each unique campus, like the Instant Expert Activity. Here, our young leaders teamed up to create an infographic of a current environmental problem. We also got their hands dirty while conducting a soil texture test.
All students left with a “Kick off Project” in hand along with California Poppy seed packets to take back to their campuses.
It made our hearts full to see the students discover their passion and make new connections. We can’t wait to see what amazing work they do to create climate-ready campuses and communities this year!