This article is part of our Youth Voices series. At Ten Strands, we believe that young people have valuable perspectives and a critical role in shaping our society and our world. We recognize their power to drive dialogue and create positive change and are committed to providing a platform which amplifies their contributions. Today, you’ll meet Caden Luu, one of the inspiring youth leaders contributing to this important work.
Q: Briefly introduce yourself: Tell us a little bit about your background and who you are—grade level, where you go to school, geographical location, any diversity indicators (pronouns, race, ethnicity, etc.). You can include your major, interests, or anything else you’d like us to know!
A: My name is Caden and I am an incoming sophomore at UC Berkeley studying data science. I have a strong interest in applying data science and analytics to real-world problems, particularly for sustainability and climate-related causes. Outside of school, I love playing racket sports (tennis, pickleball, ping-pong) and hiking.
Q: Why are you interested in environmental and climate issues? And why did you want to pursue an internship with Ten Strands, an organization that focuses on environmental and climate action in TK–12 schools?
A: I am interested in environmental and climate issues because I believe that is where data has the most meaningful impact. With the support of data and technology, we can support the implementation of more sustainable actions, helping people and the environment. I wanted to pursue an internship with Ten Strands because I believe in their mission. Helping students understand the environment and their effects on it is important because it influences how they think about and engage with these issues throughout their lives.
Q: What projects, programs, and services did your internship focus on with Ten Strands? Describe your experience and what stood out to you as you worked on different aspects of your internship.
A: My internship focused on the Policy Indicator Refresh project, where we focused on updating district policy indicators to reflect any additions or revisions to district policies. To do this, we collected data from district policies, analyzed their differences compared to CSBA templates, and presented our findings. What stood out to me was the amount of qualitative data we had to work with. With over 900 districts, it was a lot of data to work with, especially as I was more used to quantitative data.
Q: In what ways do you hope the work you did through your Ten Strands internship will make an impact?
A: I hope my work through my Ten Strands internship can influence state and district policymakers to regularly maintain and update their district policies and CSBA templates to keep them up to date with environmental standards. Since these districts and statewide templates hold so much influence and power over local schools, being a role model is important for everyone else to uphold these environmental policy standards.
Q: What skills did you learn or grow during the internship, and/or what did you learn about yourself during this internship?
A: Skills I learned during the internship included web scraping. A part of automating the data collection process was scraping the district’s Simbli and Board Docs sites, so making a web scraping script reduced the amount of labor a lot. Another thing I learned was identifying the right things to convey to an audience when it came to presenting my analysis. Rather than trying to present everything I found, I learned to focus on the insights that were most relevant to the audience and communicate them clearly.
Q: To what extent do you plan on pursuing something related to the environment in your college or career pathways?
A: I want to work at the intersection of data and sustainability, whether it be a data scientist or data analyst. I would like to focus specifically on energy, where data can be used to improve system efficiency and reliability. For example, I’d be interested in tackling solar/wind forecasting or electricity-demand forecasting.
Q: How do you see data as a meaningful and powerful tool in catalyzing environmental and climate action in schools? Reflect on how data, in your view, can support systemic change in TK–12 education.
A: I see data as a meaningful and powerful tool for catalyzing environmental and climate action in schools because it can transform broad, yet ambitious goals into actionable improvements. In TK–12 education specifically, it helps policymakers identify gaps in environmental policies, while also measuring progress that encourages impactful action.
