Anna DeVolld

Promote Our Pollinators (P.O.P.)

She first created an activity book for young kids full of puzzles and coloring pages to inspire them to be pollinator-aware and good stewards of the planet. She has since developed Curriculum Kits for teachers that contain lesson plans, activity books, and Pollinator Pack supplies, along with P.O.P. buttons, stickers, and reusable tote bags. Grant funding of nearly $6,000 allows her to distribute materials free of charge. Anna also works to promote pollinators across her broader community. She has collaborated with local cities to design and install permanent signs in eight pollinator-friendly locations. She is currently encouraging the planting of pollinator corridors along roads and is serving on an environmental government advisory commission. Her P.O.P. materials are also distributed by sustainability-focused stores and nonprofits. “Find something you’re passionate about, no matter how small, and see how you can use it to change the world,” says Anna.

Aseel Rawashdeh

Created an Eco-Friendly Mosquito Larvicide

Aseel ran nearly 700 tests over two years, working independently and funding her research with prize money from essay competitions. She meticulously noted how differently loaded yeasts affected larvae and conducted rigorous assessments to ensure her larvicide would only harm the intended target. Along the way she experienced daunting pandemic-time challenges such as obtaining mosquito eggs and gaining access to lab equipment. She’s currently working on completing small-scale field trials of her larvicide. She has determined it could be inexpensively produced as a powder in industrial quantities and applied in mosquito breeding sites. “I’ve realized the power of dedicating myself to a cause,” says Aseel. “When the experiments got tedious or things didn’t go as expected and I felt the desire to quit, the one thing that kept me going was the prospect of contributing a solution to a global issue.”

Austin Picinich

Save Our Salmon Through Art

Austin built SOS through community partnerships, bringing together organizations such as Salmon Watchers and Seattle-based nonprofit Urban ArtWorks. Working with Salmon Watchers, he incorporates salmon education into SOS murals and events. He first outlines and color-codes the salmon-themed murals. He then organizes Community Paint Days, where volunteers of all ages bring the murals to life. Austin is currently developing several more large-scale murals to bring salmon awareness to additional Greater Seattle communities. He is also designing vivid, salmon-themed vinyl wraps for traffic signal boxes at intersections along area streams to raise awareness as drivers sit at red lights. “I’ve learned that the power of WE can start with one person — even if that person is just a high schooler who likes art,” says Austin.

Austin’s story is featured on our sister site, Inspiring Young Heroes.

Ethan Hill

Ethan’s Heart Bags4Blessings

Each December, he organizes more than 100 volunteers from across the state to pack hundreds of duffel bags. The next morning, his team serves breakfast in a local park and distributes the supplies. Ethan has also aided a homeless veteran in transitioning to permanent housing and has partnered with a company that makes cots, offering them for free to the people he serves. He began his work as a 6-year-old after noticing a homeless gentleman, whom he now knows as Mr. Marcus, living under a freeway. Ethan researched “emergency needs of homeless individuals,” used his Christmas money to purchase essential items, and gifted them to Mr. Marcus and others living nearby. “Those without addresses are disregarded, criminalized, and judged, but they’re people who want to be seen, loved, and supported,” says Ethan. “I don’t focus on why a person became homeless. I just look at what I can do to make life a little easier for them.”

Hannah Guan

San Antonio Math Include (SaMi)

Hannah launched SaMi at age 11, knowing firsthand the obstacles to accessing STEM opportunities. For years, her single immigrant mother drove her across Texas to math competitions, most of which weren’t accessible or affordable to the majority of students. She envisioned SaMi as a way to help level the playing field and reached out to 500 nearby public schools to offer free after school math support. When only one school took her up on her offer, she developed online programming in order to reach more students. In 2021, she organized one of the nation’s largest free online summer camps, with more than 3,500 students attending over 200 sessions in math and computer science. Hannah’s commitment to underserved students extends beyond SaMi. She was the only high schooler appointed by the City of San Antonio to help distribute a $12.5 million fund to support at-risk youth. She is currently working to bring Artificial Intelligence curriculum and teacher training to 133 area high schools. “I believe that every child, regardless of their race, family income, or zip code, should have equal access to high-quality education,” says Hannah. “I will continue working to make that happen.”

Jack Dalton

Kid Conservationist

Jack began his work as an 8-year-old after learning about palm oil, deforestation, and how his actions were affecting animals. Vowing to create change, he has since presented to more than 4,500 children and adults in classrooms and at zoos and conferences around the world. He shares his vast knowledge of orangutans and inspires audiences to care about the Earth and all its inhabitants. Jack has sold more than 1,800 copies of his book and has donated hundreds of them to children in need at schools, libraries, and hospitals. “I’ve learned that I can take on challenging causes and persevere because it’s the right thing to do,” says Jack. “I’ve discovered that if you want something to change, you need to do something about it.”

Karina Samuel

Bye Bye Plastic Bags (Florida Chapter)

Karina is passionate about promoting climate justice and racial equity. As a person of color, she knows firsthand how POC are disproportionately impacted by climate change. To engage minority voters and ensure their voices are heard, Karina’s team has hosted 50 drive-thru voter registration campaigns in mostly minority communities over the past year. Her group helps voters learn about pro-environment state representatives by hosting online conferences with the reps. Karina also mobilizes hundreds of volunteers across the state to campaign door-to-door on their behalf. “While all of humanity can be to blame for the climate crisis and pollution, I believe those who have the power to fight for change have the responsibility to do so,” says Karina. “I hope to serve as a role model for other young women of color seeking to advance environmental causes.”

Karun Kaushik

Democratize Health

Karun launched his work following his mother’s battle with severe pneumonia in 2020, when misdiagnoses and delayed treatment at a California hospital nearly cost her life. He was concerned about hospitals in India and knew from visits that they had nowhere near the resources or technology necessary to save lives like his mother’s. As Covid-19 swept the globe, he spoke with radiologists in India who confirmed that overwhelming patient volume and impossible working conditions were creating diagnostic bottlenecks resulting in unnecessary deaths. Karun became laser-focused on developing a solution to remove the ever-building backlogs. He spent months teaching himself Machine Learning and AI – often until 3:00 a.m. – to create X-Check-MD. “It’s easy to feel hopeless at times with the issues the world is facing but in my opinion, hope is our strongest resource and weapon,” says Karun. “I want to drive change to make a better world.”

Khloe Joiner

A Book and a Smile

Khloe launched her project by using her life savings of $141 to buy 141 books at the dollar store. Family members jumped in to support her cause and she was able to donate 350 new books to the local police department. Word of her work spread quickly and donations poured in, including 1,000 books from Disney. Soon Khloe was giving new books to neighboring police departments and organizing free Pop-Up Book Fairs for kids. During the pandemic when book drives proved difficult, she worked with her City Council to organize a drive-thru book donation at City Hall and collected 5,000 new books. Her goal is to collect 1,000,000 new books for children around the world. “I’ve learned that if you have a dream in your heart, do something with that dream,” says Khloe. “You can start small but if you put your whole heart in it, then your dream can become as big as you want!”

Laalitya Acharya

The Nereid Project

Laalitya began her project at age 15 following a trip to visit relatives in India, where she and her family fell ill from drinking contaminated water. She resolved to address the water crisis and launched The Nereid Project to help through innovation and education. Along with inventing her AI device, she has hosted more than 200 Water Summits to teach people of all ages about the severity of water poverty and ways to help alleviate it. Her hands-on programs, now offered online, have reached thousands of people in nearly a dozen countries. “I am truly grateful to everybody who has been a part of The Nereid Project’s journey,” says Laalitya. “Our story has just begun and I’m so excited to see where it goes!”

Lucy Westlake

LucyClimbs

Lucy’s time in Uganda served as a call to action. She realized she could use her passion for climbing to raise awareness of the world’s water crisis – and could rally her peers to raise funds for the cause. Through WaterStep, she organized a used shoe drive at her school to provide affordable footwear for people in developing countries and funds for WaterStep. The drive’s huge success inspired Lucy to expand it to other schools. She established a Teen Board of students from ten area high schools that now organizes shoe drives every March on World Water Day. The group has raised $25,000 so far. Early in 2022, Lucy returned to Uganda to visit Faith and to help install more chlorinator systems. “I want to inspire a generation of young people to use their gifts and passions to make the world a better place,” says Lucy. “If not me, then who? If not now, then when?”

Luna Abadía

Effective Climate Action Project

Luna has selected a group of 13 youth from nine countries including the Netherlands and Indonesia to train as Climate Simulation Leaders. She teaches them to interpret and clearly communicate simulation information to audiences from middle school students to policy makers. Her youth leaders then bring the simulation workshops to their communities. Luna is currently working with Oregon’s largest school district to create a climate policy and curriculum. She has also trained Oregon teachers and students in running climate simulation workshops. Selected as a delegate to the UN’s Climate Change Conference of Youth during COP26 in 2021, she had the chance to present the group’s Climate Policy statement to world leaders, including President Biden. “Youth have the strongest voice in this fight. We’re the ones with passion and the ability to view the world with hope,” says Luna. “No one is ever too young to raise their voice and make a difference.”

Sahana Mantha

Foundation for Girls

Sahana and her sister Shreya began their work in middle school by volunteering at a homeless shelter for teenage trafficking survivors. The girls there talked repeatedly about their need for guidance, support, and skills in order to land stable jobs and change their situations. In 2014, Sahana and Shreya assembled a team of women from the community to support the girls, paying tribute to their late grandmother who had challenged them to “do something to help girls.” Since then, the sisters have grown their team to 75 consistent coaches and an additional 150 volunteers. Sahana currently co-leads FFG’s Digitally Forward program to support girls in obtaining their Microsoft Office Suite certification. She gives each participant a laptop, sourcing and often rebuilding the computers herself. “I’ve learned about the power of collaboration and how far we can go if we work together,” says Sahana. “I’ve also seen that teens can work alongside young adults to create solutions to community challenges.”

Sri Nihal Tammana

Recycle My Battery

Undeterred, he reached out for help from Call2Recycle, the largest battery recycling nonprofit in North America. Call2Recycle agreed to provide recycling bins and handle the recycling logistics for free, with Recycle My Battery placing bins in schools, libraries, and other public places. Nihal next approached his school district’s superintendent for permission to place battery bins in the district’s 19 schools. Given the go-ahead, he began recruiting other school kids to help him distribute bins. Nihal’s organization now operates across the U.S. and is expanding to other countries including Canada, Switzerland, and India. “Earth gives us so much – oxygen, food, water – everything! – so it’s important that we give something back when we can,” says Nihal. “I always say, ‘If I can make Earth a better place to live, you can! If you can make Earth a better place to live, we all can!’”

William Charouhis

We are Forces of Nature

At the 2021 United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26), he met with officials from Peru, Fiji, and the Seychelles to discuss mangroves’ role in mitigating coastal risk. He has also spoken about their ability to sequester carbon with their quick-growing, leafy mass. Passionate about mangroves’ myriad benefits, Will knows well the challenge of planting them. Of the 289 mangrove seedlings he has planted in tidal areas in the past two years, only 20% have survived. He is currently conducting field research to develop better ways to grow and plant seedlings. He also continues to encourage residents to restore older mangroves by removing ocean trash from their roots. “I’ve learned to never take ‘no’ for an answer and to persevere,” says Will. “Youth have a can-do attitude. We don’t understand bureaucracy, so we don’t let it stop us.”

Will’s story is featured on our sister site, Inspiring Young Heroes.