The Will Steger Foundation's Emerging Leaders Program aims to educate, inspire, and engage a new generation of climate leadership on a local, regional, national, and international scale.
Will Steger Foundation has also dedicated significant energy to supporting the growing youth climate movement in Minnesota and across the Midwest. Believing in the vision, collaborative spirit, and sheer numbers of the ‘Generation Y’ demographic, we created our Emerging Leaders Program in 2007. Since then, we have hosted and participated in a wide variety of high-profile youth climate events, including regional and national Powershift conferences, forums with elected officials, youth lobby days, and youth climate trainings and events across the Midwest. Through our participation in and support for these events we have built strong partnerships with youth climate organizations and student groups across the Midwest, many of whom join Will Steger Foundation on bi-monthly regional coalition conference calls. We are committed to supporting vibrant student leadership here in Minnesota and the Midwest and building a broader and more unified coalition of climate leadership across the generational spectrum.
The Emerging Leaders Program is, at its core, a collection of climate action partnerships. From connecting high school students with college-aged mentors to arctic expeditions, these diverse partnerships all focus on building awareness of climate issues and solutions. While the overarching goal of these partnerships is to raise climate awareness, the Emerging Leaders components of these partnerships focuses on providing emerging leaders with access and experience.
