ACE Youth Reps are the cream of the crop - the most dedicated, passionate youth climate leaders nationwide. They are busy working on world-changing carbon-reducing projects and sharing their stories with peers and adults. Sometimes they put on eco-fashion shows, sometimes they even meet with the White House...

Right now we have 3 Youth Reps who you'll meet below, and will be adding another 6 nationwide this year, so stay tuned.

Chicago: DanaRae Marigmen

Dana Rae is a 15-year-old sophomore at Fenwick High School in who loves to eat customized veggie pizza. Dana Rae is excited to be Chicago’s ACE Youth Rep because she “wants to be a role model, aid, and voice of encouragement to everyone who is willing to make a change in their routine. I'm doing this for the essential preservation of our environment and the betterment of lives, globally. I also would like to motivate those who are still skeptical about this movement and help communicate our goals so people may realize how climate change heavily affects our lives, everyday. I believe students and young adults are the perfect candidates to be instruments to the public and influence everyone around them.” Dana Rae is currently working on a green fashion show called Project Greenway, and will be speaking at events and blogging for ACE from Chicago.

 

Bay Area: Shreya Indukuri & Daniela Lapidous

Inspired by the ACE Assembly at their school, the Harker School in San Jose, Shreya and Daniela started an ACE Action Team and planted a school garden as their first project. Next, they won an ACE grant and installed smartmeters at school. Soon, they detected a series of anomalies in their school’s energy usage – such as air conditioning left on in the gym over the weekend – and, with a few simple tweaks, lowered their school’s energy bill by 13%.
 
It’s an amazing story, but it wasn’t enough for Shreya and Daniela. They went on to found their own nonprofit, SmartPowerEd.org, and are actively working with other schools in San Jose to implement energy-saving programs. They joined ACE’s Youth Advisory Board, where they advise us on our programs. In June 2011, they were invited to the White House to speak at an invite-only White House event on grid modernization, sharing a stage with U.S. Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, to tell their story and discuss possibilities of scaling their project nationwide. They have also shared their story at Powershift in April 2011 in front of 8,000 young people (left) and at the Clinton Global Initiative in September 2011 with ACE's Founder, Mike Haas (right).

New England: Srijesa Khasnabish 

Srijesa is a junior at Lexington High School in Lexington, MA. Her interest in the environment began freshmen year after watching the ACE presentation, which changed her life forever. She joined her school’s Action Team, GWAC (Global Warming Action Coalition) and become the ACE Ambassador, participated in multiple ACE trainings, and spearheaded GWAC’s “Carbon Cut Day,” getting students at Lexington High to pledge to come to school in an environmentally-friendly way. Srijesa is a true leader with a strong passion for the environment and motivation to undertake challenges. ACE has motivated her to share her passion and spark change throughout the New England region.

Los Angeles: Mahuya Barua

Mahuya Barua is a junior at Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Los Angeles, CA. She’s the president of Bravo’s Campus Beautification Club, and has been involved in a slew of projects: building a DOT tree with over 100 DOTs collected from their school community, building a more efficient school-wide recycling program, and most recently, participating in Biggest Loser with 20 classrooms signed up. Mahuya believes that small steps make a big difference, and is ready to help motivate her Southern California community to take action on climate change.