Teenage Trio Inspires Recycling Revolution at San Ramon School

The Climate Leaders Fellowship is a leadership development program for students interested in climate change and environmental sustainability. The online program is provided by a collaboration between the Stanford University Deliberative Democracy Lab and the Rustic Pathways Foundation.

Ria joined the fourth cycle of the fellowship this spring. Read her story below!

Ria Vakharia
Age 15
San Ramon, California

Hi, I’m Ria Vakharia, a 15-year-old from San Ramon, California. I live with my parents, my sister, and most importantly, my dog Romeo. I love playing with Romeo and taking him on walks around the neighborhood. My favorite subjects in school are science and English.

Recently, I worked with two other students from my school on a project for the Rustic Pathways Climate Leaders Fellowship. We noticed that there was a lot of trash around our school that wasn’t being cleaned up, and people weren’t using the right bins for their garbage. This was a big problem, especially in the Lower School, where the younger kids go.

To tackle this issue, we decided to talk to about 80 third graders at our school about climate change and how to recycle properly. We gave them two weeks to collect used plastic and create something with it. They came up with two amazing structures that showed the effects of climate change and the importance of plastic recycling.

After our presentation, we were happy to see that many of the third graders started recycling correctly and even helped pick up trash around the Lower School. Our project made a big difference in our school, and we’re proud of what we accomplished.