Ohio Teen's Quest to Reduce Carbon Footprints

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

The online program is offered in a collaboration between the Stanford University Deliberative Democracy Lab and the Rustic Pathways Foundation.

Read Ezri’s guest post about her experience below!

My name is Ezri Rutger. I live in a small town in Ohio. I’m going to be a sophomore in high school. I’m very involved in my school; I’m a varsity cheerleader, I’m in various clubs, and I take dance classes at my local dance studio.

For my climate change project, my partner and I focused on reducing people’s carbon footprints. We started an Instagram account to reach both students at our high school and others in our community. We hung up flyers in our school, along with making multiple posts on our social media account.

For 2 weeks we did a challenge, called Eight for Earth, where we encouraged people to try 8 different methods of reducing on much they waste, and finding ways to minimize their carbon footprint.

We were able to reach over 50 followers on our Instagram account and got a handful of people to participate in our challenge. My partner and I were able to work with our school to make the students more aware of our mission.

Being able to participate in the Climate Leaders Fellowship was an amazing experience. Not only was I able to learn more about things I can do to help climate change, but I was also able to educate others to make our community more green.

It was also a great way to meet new people and learn about how climate change has affected all parts of the world. I would encourage everyone to participate in this program to be able to help not just your community, but your planet.