As a kid growing up, my world was a feeling of quiet, budding curiosity about the natural world. When I was young, watching stories about beautiful, endangered worlds completely shifted how I saw our relationship with the Earth. It wasn’t just entertainment to me; it was an awakening that led me to start dragging my family to local Earth Day events. By the time I hit my early teens, watching documentaries about the global environmental crisis hardened that curiosity into a definitive, personal mandate: I couldn’t just sit by. I had to do something.
Tech became my vehicle for that mission. During my high school years, I threw myself into computer science, learning to code and build virtual reality environments. I even founded a company to make immersive education accessible. That intersection of technology and activism eventually caught the eye of global storytelling organizations, who gave me a scholarship to travel and study glacial landscapes. Wrapping myself in freezing winds, I used my cameras to capture the raw, melting reality of glaciers, bringing the distant, abstract terror of climate change back home in a way people could visually feel.
But I knew that awareness without power couldn’t change systems. At 14, I joined a local student advisory committee to fight for better education policies. Walking those corridors, I realized that environmental degradation and social inequality were deeply intertwined. Frontline communities, like the ones I grew up around, were bearing the brunt of the crisis. To give those communities a voice, I launched an international youth-led publication to report on environmental justice.
The deeper I got into the work, the more I realized that the biggest lever for systemic survival sat right outside my front door. Inspired by the global youth climate movement, I took to the streets for weekly climate strikes. For dozens of consecutive weeks, rain or shine, Friday meant skipping class to hold a sign outside the gates of federal power. It was exhausting, but it was necessary.
That relentless, grassroots persistence as a teenager eventually built a bridge from my childhood neighborhood to the highest levels of governance. At just 18 years old, I was appointed as a climate advisor to the president, becoming the youngest executive advisor in history.
Looking back at the kid who just wanted to understand nature after watching a movie, I realize how far the journey has taken me. My dream now is that the systemic policies we are fighting for today will finally set our planet on a path toward healing. I want to look back at those gates, and the neighborhoods where I spent my childhood, knowing we built a world where the next generation doesn’t have to spend their youth striking just to secure a future.
My new role as a Communications Specialist at The Climate Center is the perfect place to turn storytelling into systemic action. My dream is that our work drives deep enough policy shifts to put the planet on a lasting cooling trajectory. I can’t wait to see what we achieve together as we build a vibrant, thriving world where future generations can look forward to a bright and beautiful future.
