Los Angeles Teen Organizes Reusable Water Bottle Drive & Provides Agricultural Education to Peers

The Climate Leaders Fellowship program teaches students about climate change and environmental sustainability, and guides them in designing and launching a project in their own communities.

The fellowship is offered as a collaboration between the Stanford University Deliberative Democracy Lab and the Rustic Pathways Foundation.

This was Ruby’s second time joining the Climate Leaders Fellowship. With her prior experience, Ruby joined as both a participant and a student facilitator. Read about Ruby’s impactful experience below!

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Ruby Santamaria
Age 16
Los Angeles, California

Tell us about yourself!  

Hi! My name is Ruby Santamaria and I’m from Los Angeles, California. I’m 16 years old and interested in bettering my environmental surroundings through community-based projects such as the Climate Leaders Fellowship (CLF). I also love running, being outdoors, and am a huge dog lover.

What specific problem were you addressing in your community?

I completed two cycles in the CLF as well as serving as a Student Facilitator in the last cycle completed Fall of 2023. I chose to focus my attention on both the impact of climate change on homeless communities in LA as well as educating teens on the importance of agriculture through a GoFundMe and Instagram page.

What did you do for your project?

For my first cycle, I collected reusable water bottles and distributed them to a local homeless shelter. I did this because reusable water bottles are much better for the environment but still very expensive. Additionally, having a reusable water bottle helps combat climate change induced illnesses such as heatstroke.

For my second and most recent project, I teamed up with two of my friends to create an instagram page dedicated to agricultural literacy and teaching teens about the importance of agriculture. Specifically, we raised money for the American Farmland Trust.

What type of contributions did you collect?

For my first project, I collected physical donations such as the water bottles and for my second project I collected monetary donations.

How did you do it?

In my first cycle, I called dozens of homeless shelters and donation centers to see who would take and distribute the reusable water bottles to homeless communities. For the most part, I was unsuccessful. Through perseverance, I was ultimately able to partner with a large homeless organization in a very densely populated area which ended up being a huge success.

For my Instagram page and GoFundMe, I had some help from my friends as we worked to create a more online based method of getting our message out there such as creating the GoFundMe page and creating posts for our Instagram.

Where did you do it?

Both cycles were largely based out of California, more specifically Los Angeles, on my part. For the Instagram page, however, my friends were based out of both Northern California and Florida, so we were able to create a more widespread difference throughout our communities.

Which groups of people did you try to get to engage with your project?

Mainly teens for both cycles. I think teens are definitely more willing to hear about climate change related issues and to feel inclined to do something about it. After all, we’ll be the generation responsible for cleaning up all the damage that has already been done. I think teens are also most willing to educate others, so by focusing both of my campaigns on teens, I felt I was also contributing to a much larger population.

What were the results?

A drive I organized at my high school was able to collect around 60 pounds of reusable water bottles and I heard so many students happy that they were able to contribute to a positive change.

While the quantitative results weren’t as successful for our Instagram and GoFundMe, the qualitative results were largely successful and helped me see that a lot of people were learning more about agriculture through our information campaign.

I worked with the Los Angeles Mission for my water bottle drive and the American Farmland Trust for my Instagram/GoFundMe (neither organization was directly affiliated with any drive/project).

Why did you join the Climate Leaders Fellowship?

I live in one of the most polluted cities in America, and it can be really disheartening to see how climate change has destroyed my natural surroundings. What originally inspired me to become a fellow and Student Facilitator was to make a difference- no matter how small.

Being a Student Facilitator and providing feedback for other fellows projects has been the most gratifying experience, I am still so happy that I was able to create a much larger difference than I could imagine. It feels encouraging to know that myself and so many other fellows are doing their best to combat climate change as a whole.

How did participating in the Climate Leaders Fellowship make you feel? 

Participating in the Climate Leaders Fellowship has been one of my most proud moments throughout high school. I’m currently a junior and have been participating since I was a freshman and it’s been really enlightening to see not only how I’ve grown throughout the fellowship but how my love for environmentalism has grown as well.

It’s definitely been an impetus for me to learn more about local politics surrounding climate change and may even be something I want to study further in the future. I’m currently working on creating a club for climate leaders at my school and the knowledge I’ve collected throughout the fellowship has been so helpful and invaluable to me, I couldn’t be more excited to see what the future of the fellowship holds!