This article is part of our Youth Voices series. At Ten Strands, we believe that young people offer valuable perspectives and play a critical role in shaping our society and our world. We recognize their power to drive dialogue and create positive change, and we are committed to providing a platform that amplifies their contributions to the Data Initiative for Environmental and Climate Action in California’s TK–12 schools. Today, you’ll meet Leena Maharajh, one of the inspiring youth leaders contributing to this important work.
1. Briefly introduce yourself.
I’m an incoming senior at UC Davis for Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning, and I’m originally from the east bay area. I love working with kids and currently volunteer in elementary schools helping teach environmental science and sustainability! I hope to continue my education in the field of public policy.
2. What brought you to this project?
I’ve always been passionate about environmental science, and having been around a lot of children, as a volunteer and a camp counselor, I started to realize there were major gaps in youth environmental literacy. I myself did not start learning about the environment and environmental action in depth until I was a junior in high school. Through working on this project, I hoped to learn more about environmental literacy as a whole, both what has already been done in schools, and future actions that can be taken. I also hoped to contribute meaningfully towards using data to drive environmental and climate action in schools.
3. Tell us about your experience working on this project.
During this internship I helped clean and validate a dataset on county information such as environmental and climate plans, county office of education regulations, and hired environmental staff. I further made visualizations and graphs to draw connections between the timing of regulations passed by each county, as well as how the county’s demographics played a role in their pollution burden and the environmental actions they have taken. What stood out to me was how a county’s locale classification (urban, rural, etc.) and political learning had an impact on the environmental actions they have taken.
4. In what ways do you hope your work made an impact?
I hope my work will make an impact by prompting others to ask questions. While I have created visualizations that draw connections between demographics and environmental plans and regulations, I hope that when people view them, they are encouraged to think about environmental literacy and environmental literacy plans in their own schools and counties, or to draw further connections themselves.
5. Did this project help you grow your data skills?
Yes, this project did help me grow my data skills. It helped strengthen the skills of data cleaning, visualization, and dashboarding. While I had done these all before, this was the first time I was not given strict guidelines on what visualizations or dashboards I had to make, and I had the ability to showcase the information or connections I thought were important or interesting. This led to having to learn the skill of story-telling, as I had to tell a cohesive story through the visualizations I was making. During this time I also learned how to use Tableau, a data visualization platform I had never used before.
6. To what extent do you plan on pursuing something related to the environment in your college or career pathways?
I have a strong intention to pursue something related to the environment in both my college and career pathway. I am currently an environmental policy major at my college, and plan to go to graduate school to study public policy and focus on policies relating to the environment. After completing my education, I also would like to work on implementing or improving environmental policies, though I don’t know yet at what level, local or state.
