Maryland Teen-Led Effort Raises Funds for Chesapeake Bay Conservation

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.

Read about Nathan’s journey below!

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Nathan Tran
Age 17
Rockville, Maryland
Thomas S. Wootton High School

My name is Nathan Tran, I am currently 17 years old and a junior at Thomas S. Wootton High School located in Rockville Maryland. I enjoy thrilling adventures where I can use my athletic ability to discover new things. I am very energetic, so I require some sort of activity to keep me occupied, whether it’s playing a sport like volleyball or basketball, or chilling inside and playing video games.

Anyway, enough about myself. Let’s discuss the issue I wanted to address while participating in the Climate Leaders Fellowship Program. I would like to thank Simen Chu, April Cheng, Edison Liang, and Ksusha Ulyanova before going into further detail regarding the particular issue.

Collaborating with others has greatly facilitated the spread of information and the planning of awareness-raising events. While working alone can occasionally be beneficial, this kind of job was better accomplished with the help of a team. Collaborating in a group provided additional insights and expertise that simplified the process of completing tasks.

Our goal was to draw attention to the issues that the Chesapeake Bay is currently facing. The Chesapeake Bay, located here in Maryland, is recognized as the country’s largest estuary and watershed. It has a total area of around 64,000 square miles, with more than 150 rivers and streams draining into the bay. It runs from New York to Maryland and finally empties into the Atlantic Ocean.

Chesapeake Bay is home to many species of sea life, like the rockfish and the blue crab. The growth of eelgrass on the bay’s seafloor has decreased as a result of the rising temperatures. Sea life will struggle to find a good food source if there aren’t many species present, which will also cause a population decline.

Significant alterations to the bay have also occurred, including increases in salinity and acidity, rising sea levels, and stronger storms. These changes not only endanger marine life but also human safety.

We started small to raise awareness. We organized bake sales canvassed neighborhoods, and engaged with the general public to raise money for our cause by selling snacks and collecting money.

We were able to collaborate with the Red Cross Organization during our project and we gave the donations to them. We successfully created awareness throughout our neighborhood and were able to raise over $250 in the short time allotted for our project.

The funds raised will go towards solutions to help the Chesapeake Bay. Solutions like finding new renewable energy sources or inventing new types of fertilizers for farmers since Maryland has lot of farms.

My group and I intend to increase our efforts in the future by taking advantage of this to start a club at our school. We intend to organize larger-scale activities, including gathering secondhand clothing to donate to the less fortunate or hosting assemblies or seminars to further discuss our purpose.

For me, the Climate Leaders Fellowship program was an eye-opener. not just in raising awareness but also in developing leadership and social skills. Being a shy child, I was quite anti-social growing up. I was terrified to get out of that cocoon, but this program helped me gradually gain confidence.

I’m really proud of my group and my work, and I’d want to work on this project once more if the effects of climate change on the environment persist.