Ava Litz

00:00
So my name is Ava Litz and I use she her pronouns. I'm a junior at Terra Nova High School in Jefferson Union High School District and I am also a youth co-chair of the City of Pacifica's Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. So I was very fortunate to attend a elementary and middle school very close to the ocean and they made it a point to immerse students into a curriculum that really led us to learn more about our local ecosystem.

00:42
So this included field trips to the beach, bringing experts from a variety of fields like wetlands and the ocean. And it really taught me and my peers about the importance of being a responsible and respectful citizen, especially living in a town so close to such a beautiful environment. In my sophomore year of high school, I participated in the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley's Teen Climate Ambassador Program.

01:23
And I was really learned a lot about climate change and especially how to communicate about climate change. This was through a few research projects that we completed that really dove into the environmental justice and just overall impact that a variety of factors regarding climate change can have on like communities. And it really just taught me how there's a lot of missing in normal, like everyday schooling.

01:55
And it really inspired me to kind of dive deeper into this. So I reached out to my city because I did hear that there was going to be a revision of our town's Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, and they invited me to come to a few of the subcommittee meetings and general meetings, and me, along with another youth peer, were able to really get involved in this program, and actually, they were the ones who kind of sent me and my peer about a newsletter about this program, the CYCP program, and I applied, and I was really, I looked at it and I was really interested.

02:41
I kind of felt like the perfect next step for me to continue to pursue advocating for this gap to be filled, especially as it really directly impacted solving the gap in climate change education or environmental education in general in schooling. I personally advocated for my board to pass an amendment to the board policy that they had previously passed to incorporate and produce a guidebook specific to our district.

03:14
And so a couple challenges that came up was initially I asked to give a formal presentation to our board. They thought it would be best for me to speak to the superintendent as it seemed more focused on maybe directly with the schools. So I did have a meeting with our superintendent and she gave me some really great insight of how I could potentially achieve this.

03:45
And she informed me about the district actually starting a sustainability committee that same month. So I was able to join that and share my ideas with them. And in addition, she did recommend I did make a public comment to the board, maybe not for an amendment, but more as just letting them know how they could take action and how the Sustainability Committee plans to take action.

04:12
as now that is one of our goals as the sustainability committee to create a guidebook teaching and informing schools how to make a difference and to be more sustainable like directly in our district and specific to our district and so I did make a press a public comment to our school board and though they cannot respond directly during the meeting after I was able to speak to a few of the board members including the superintendent who I previously had a meeting and they seemed very enthusiastic and they did suggest as I get further in leading making the guidebook with my sustainability committee which I am my school's representative for along with one other student to maybe make a more formal presentation like how I had initially asked to do.

05:11
Being a changemaker means identifying an issue in your community, even though it may not directly impact you, seeing how it can impact others and really taking that in and seeing what can be done to as a solution or to advocate for a solution to be made. So this involves letting and communicating to others about the issue that you identified and really taking in a variety of perspectives into how they believe that the solution can be created to make sure that it's equitable and it's able to help people in the way that they really need.

06:00
I hope to pursue a four-year college education, and I hope to major in environmental studies, and I hope to learn more about public policy and education so I can apply those skills to a career that maybe is something in environmental, like a related field. I think that's something that I really learned in this program that was definitely talked about a lot was building your coalition, which means like a group of people that are helping you achieve the goal that you want to.

06:40
So it really taught me how important it is to ask for help and share your ideas with others, but also take in other's perspectives to learn more about what other people think might be a good idea. because what might not be your immediate thought, it might be something to consider, or even you can combine the ideas to make a more impactful movement, and you're able to really get the help that you need to achieve the change that you want to because it's really hard to do it on your own.

07:18
Even if you put a lot of effort in, it really helps to have a group of people supporting you.