Before this trip, I believed people in law and people in environmental science were in completely separate worlds. They seemed to run in different circles, rarely, if ever, not intersecting. The Marine Plastic Ambassadors trip greatly broadened my perspective in ways I didn’t expect.
I had always played with the idea of using my voice to create a ripple in this world, but I didn’t know how until EarthEcho. In April, I was selected to be a 2025 Marine Plastic Ambassador, which has allowed me to realize that your voice is your greatest asset. If used intentionally, it will shift the tides.
Spending a week in Washington, D.C. with EarthEcho was nothing short of a transformative and empowering experience. I wanted to share the most powerful lessons I took away from D.C. and share my gratitude for this amazing experience.
Youth representatives from the Children and Youth Major Group to the UN Environment Programme urge global leaders to adopt a strong, legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution that addresses the full life cycle of plastics, health impacts, and time-bound commitments. They emphasize that meaningful, ongoing youth participation is essential to achieving intergenerational equity and lasting environmental change.
My OurEcho Challenge conservation project, MicroBirder, is going to explore how sound pollution affects bird populations, and through that work, I’ve become deeply interested in the ways science, technology, and conservation intersect. That’s what made attending the Cornell Young Birders Event at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology such an incredible opportunity.