Will Steger Foundation is partnering with the British Council to engage youth across the Midwest in the internationally successful Climate Generation program. We are proud to announce the selection of the 2010 Climate Champions, including 12 dynamic high school and college-age students and young alumni from five states across the Upper Midwest. Climate Champions were chosen based on demonstrated leadership on climate change solutions and will take in a year-long program fostering peer engagement at the high school level. Meet the Champions!

 

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Madeline Hansen

Maddy is a rising sophomore at the College of St Benedict and St John’s University (CSB/SJU) in Minnesota. She is currently serving as the Sustainability Representative on St Ben’s Senate and is an active member of the Environmental Responsibility Coalition. Maddy has a long history with climate leadership beginning in high school when she was president of her school’s Earth Corp, Co-Chair for Youth Environmental Activists Minnesota, and attended the Pathfinder environmental leadership program at Northland College. Maddy’s interests in the environment range from public health to wilderness adventure and environmental justice. This year she will work with the Environmental Responsibility Coalition to launch ‘A Year of Sustainability’ at CSB/SJU.

Cole Norgaarden

Cole is a sophomore in high school at Blake School in Minneapolis. His first experience in environmental organizing began in 7th grade when he and fellow students launched an earth club to help educate their peers about climate change and take action to shrink their school’s carbon footprint. Since then Cole has become active across the Twin Cities, presenting to students of all ages. This fall Cole was selected by his peers as Co-Chair of Youth Environmental Activists Minnesota, and will be running the Campaign for a Green Generation, engaging students across the Twin Cities in climate leadership in their home, school, and wider communities.

Siiri Bigalke

Siiri’s concern for the environment grew out of her compassion for others and a growing awareness of the impact of climate change on people across the globe. This has been reinforced through her travels in Peru where she witnessed the Andean Glaciers and their rapid depletion. As a senior at Stillwater High School in Minnesota, Siiri has been a catalyst for student engagement in climate change solutions. She is a co-founder of the student-run environmental club on campus, which recruited 50 new participants this fall, and is Co-Chair of Youth Environmental Activists Minnesota for the second year running. Siiri will continue to engage her peers in leadership opportunities over the coming year, through the National Powershift Summit in DC, local lobby days for climate legislation, and opportunities to present to large student audiences on the imperative of youth action on solutions.

Marie Donahue

Marie is a senior at the University of Chicago, double majoring in Economics and Environmental Studies with a focus on water resources. She has been a member of the Green Campus Initiative since her sophomore year and helped organize the ‘No Trash Bash’ along with other events on campus. She is on the steering committee for the Illinois Student Environmental Coalition and an active participant in the Midwest Youth Climate Coalition. Last summer Marie interned with the Center for Neighborhood Technology, a Chicago environmental and sustainable development nonprofit. Marie will be working closely with campuses across the state in 2010-11 to stop global warming pollution caused by campus coal plants and encourage increased bicycle ridership.

Lena Spadacene

A senior at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, Lena is passionate about the intersection of agriculture and the environment. After the release of the 2006 UN report by the Food and Agriculture Organization that attributed 18% of global, human-induced greenhouse gas emissions to animal agriculture, Lena decided to educate her peers through a campaign to reduce the amount of industrial farmed animal products consumed by students and community members alike.  In 2009 she led the charge to make GVSU the first university in the state to use 100% cage-free eggs at all dining cafeterias, the bulk of which are purchased within 150 ‘food miles’ of the campus. Lena is a member of the Green Team on campus and participated in the 350 Day of Climate Action, organizing a 20-mile bike ride aimed at increasing public awareness about US energy consumption.

Casey Wojtalewicz

A senior at the College of St Benedict and St John’s University (CSB/SJU) in Minnesota, Casey had his first experience with climate action at age 16 when he joined the effort to stop the construction of a second coal plant twenty miles upwind and upstream from his home. This was just beginning for Casey, now a senior majoring in Peace Studies with a minor in Hispanic Studies. In 2009 he launched a campaign to start a revolving green fund on campus and helped found the Student Sustainability Coalition, bringing dialog on climate change to the forefront of the community. In 2010 Casey joined the ‘Summer of Solutions’ program, a youth run community initiative focusing on energy efficiency and green manufacturing based in the Twin Cities. This fall Casey will continue to lead (CSB/SJU) toward a more sustainable future and help grow Grand Aspirations, a non-profit organization founded and managed by youth, dedicated to supporting youth leaders as they create innovative, self-sustaining, and inter-dependent initiatives combining climate and energy solutions, economic security, and social justice.

Claire Baglien

Claire Baglien is a freshman at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, pursuing a humanitarian career field concentrating in global studies and international relations. Claire has always been passionate about non-profit work that focuses on promoting sustainability and social justice. As a sophomore in high school she founded the Osseo Green Club and served as president through her senior year. In 2008 she joined Youth Environmental Activists Minnesota as a steering committee member and event coordinator. Over the course of her high school career Claire was a major catalyst for campus sustainability and successfully launched a school-wide recycling program and driving school membership to the Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon program, which awarded Osseo High School a $500 grant for recycling bins. Claire is looking forward to continuing her commitment to sustainability at the University of Minnesota through the coming year.

Jennifer Nicklay

Jennifer is a junior at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, majoring in Biology with a minor in Social Justice and Global Studies. The interdisciplinary nature of her academic interests reflects her commitment to bridging the gap between science and culture. From her study abroad in Vietnam and Cambodia to her prestigious selection as Minnesota State 4-H Ambassador, she brings a holistic approach to her interest in climate change. Jennifer is currently engaged with the Southeast Como Improvement Association, supporting a neighborhood community garden project in conjunction with local residents, designing crop rotations and grow boxes for renters and homeowners with limited green space. She is also a volunteer with the Native American Medicine Garden assisting with planting and harvesting on campus.

Holly Jones

Holly is a life-long resident of Iowa and a recent graduate of the University of Iowa, where she majored in History with a minor in Environmental Studies. She became involved in youth climate leadership through the March to Reenergize Iowa, organized by the Sierra Student Coalition (SSC) during the summer of 2007. This was a defining moment for Holly catapulting her into climate action on a national and international scale. Through her on-going participation in the SSC, Holly has become a leader, activist, and peer mentor to youth across the U.S. She has co-facilitated several of the SSC’s national climate organizing trainings, coordinated mass participation in national youth summits, supported the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, and in 2009 traveled with the Will Steger Foundation to the international climate negotiations as a member of the Expedition Copenhagen delegation. Holly worked for the U.S. department of Agriculture this fall, and is currently National Executive Chair of the SSC.

Christa Owens

Christa is a junior at Carleton College in Minnesota majoring in Political Science. Her passions range from peer education, to environmental justice, to global political and environmental connections. As a member of Model United Nations in high school, Christa attended many regional, national, and international conferences, giving her a broader understanding of many global issues including climate change. Christa accepted an opportunity to build on this experience when she joined the Sierra Student Coalition's delegation to the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009. Last summer, Christa was a full-time fellow with ‘Summer of Solutions’, an entirely youth run community initiative, working on urban agriculture and green industry projects in the Twin Cities. She is currently studying resource management and human ecology in the Brazilian Amazon.

Reed Aronow

A graduate from Hamline University in Minnesota with a major in Environmental Justice and Anthropology, Reed’s interest in climate change began as an elementary school student, studying clouds and weather. At age 14 he and his family survived a tornado, which lifted their car off the road before placing it down again on all 4 wheels. As a student at Hamline University, Reed worked as a teaching assistant on climate modeling, studied Mayan archeology in Mexico, and traveled with Hamline University to the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in New York. He also traveled to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in the spring of 2006 to learn more about the social justice implications of the environmental disaster. Reed has dedicated himself to generating public awareness of the climate crisis as well as solutions and in 2009 was selected to join the Will Steger Foundation’s youth delegation to the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen. This fall he will embark on ‘Solutions Revolution’ a cross-country bike trek to Washington DC, culminating in participation in the COP 16 international climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico this November. Reed and his teammates will create a documentary film of their experience, recording local community solutions to the climate crisis as they go.

Jamie Horter

Jamie is a recent graduate of Augustana College in South Dakota, where she majored in Art and Chemistry. She was an active member of the Augustana community as President of Augie Green, the environmental student group on campus, as well as the Augustana Coalition for Social Justice, the Sioux Falls Transportation Committee, and Trash Initiative Focus Group in Sioux Falls. Jamie’s interest in the arts, education, social justice, and the environment have taken her on travels across the globe, including Mexico, India, Sweden, and Peru, where stories of life, hardship, and hope further strengthened her passions to pursue solutions for hunger, poverty, and environmental and social injustice. She spent her spring semester in Africa last year, studying conservation ecology, community development, and human rights. Jamie’s leadership on the environment goes beyond the campus. In 2009 she organized a community-wide event in Sioux Fall on the 350 International Day of Climate Action, drawing attention to need keep global Carbon Dioxide levels below 350 parts per million in the atmosphere. Jamie was selected to join the Will Steger Foundation’s youth delegation to the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen in 2009, and will spend the fall working for US Senator Tim Johnson in Washington DC this fall.