Youth Committee Chair’s Message
By Raghav Akula • 23akular@mtps.us
Issue-focused committees have provided working muscles for the NJ Chapter’s advocacy, from transportation to offshore wind to legislative action. Now, a new source of strength has been added to the Chapter: the Youth Committee.
As the Sierra Club’s NJ student liaison and now chair of the Youth Committee, I noticed that student members and youth involvement were scarce within the Chapter, but whether the debate was around fossil fuel infrastructure or plastic production, the Sierra Club’s work routinely covered issues that would affect young people the most. The Club serves as a potent force in the environmental movement, offering connections that are difficult for high schoolers to cultivate on their own. So, for much of my time with the Chapter, I’ve tried to augment our level of youth engagement and enable students to access the vast networks and resources that our Chapter offers. These efforts culminated with the inauguration of the Youth Committee and the NJ Youth Climate Alliance (NJYCA).
The Youth Committee now consists of me, high school sophomore Shirin Sood, junior Syona Gupta, and freshman Shriyaa Madineni. It’s a team with diverse interests and experiences who all want to get more involved in the constructive work of climate action. We also lead the newly formed NJYCA, an organization that we’ll use to help publicize our work and coordinate with other state environmental groups. With this visibility and team organization, we’ll leverage the resources of various activist groups to increase youth involvement in the politics and advocacy of climate action.
Two main areas we’ll explore are educational projects and targeted campaigns. We’ll start producing original articles about environmental issues, ranging from clean energy technology to policy summaries. We’ll publish these in newsletters, on social media, and on our websites in partnership with the Princeton University-based NJ Student Climate Advocates (NJSCA).
The other portion of our work will hopefully supplement the work and achievements of Sierra Club staff and volunteers, from lobbying state representatives to testifying for legislative committees. We intend the NJYCA to be an inherently collaborative laboratory of new ideas.
We invite youth from anywhere in the state—whether they’ve been engaged in the environmental movement for years or are just wading into the fight—to reach out to us with any campaigns or projects they have in mind. We’re open to any suggestions and proposals, from writing policy summaries with the NJSCA to meeting with elected officials.
If this sounds like the platform for youth engagement that you’ve been waiting for, visit our website at www.njyouthclimate.com and contact us at njyouthclimate@gmail.com. Join us and be at the forefront of the fight against the climate crisis.