Scholarship Winners
Here at ACE, we are big fans of recognizing the incredible accomplishments high school students have achieved. Every year we award scholarships to students who lead the way in lowering emissions and raising their voice in their personal lives, school and communities.
Meet ACE's 2009 and 2010 ACE Scholarship winners below!
2010 Scholarship Winners:
Roodia Cribb
Codman Academy, Dorchester, MA
Roodia is one of the founding members and President of her school’s environmental club. Thanks to Roodia's initiative, the club was able to create and successfully run a paper-recycling program, a bottle recycling system, as well as prevent her school from using plastic cups and bottled water by selling reusable options. Using her creativity and desire to make a difference, Roodia put on skits and hung posters around campus in order to get her classmates involved in environmental issues.
Kaily Heitz
Francis W. Parker High School, Evanston, IL
Kaily became involved with the Peggy Botebart Nature Museum TEENS program, where she developed skills to lead community environmental projects. She has since helped organize “Fall Feast” where students can come together over a local, organic meal and discuss environmental issues. She has also kicked off a “Do it in the Dark” campaign, where classes are taught without lights on once a week, energy saved. She will be attending Pizter College next fall.
Jordan Howard
Environmental Charter High School, LA, CA
Jordan led her high school’s Rise Above Plastics program, where she trained twenty students to give thirty presentations around LA on the negative effects of using plastic. She also directed a short film “A Day in the Life”, demonstrating simple acts one can do to create a greener planet, which won the Audience Choice Award at Santa Monica Teen Festival. In addition this, Jordan has spoke on Nickelodeon’s Big Green Help segment and has also presented at Google headquarters on various environmental issues.
Meredith Jacobson
After attending Powershift in 2009 and the GSA conference later that summer, Meredith became inspired to create a blog where viewers could express their opinions regarding climate change (www.blogspot.com/thelimerevolution). As a senior, she was able to revive the school’s Students for Environmental Action Club, organizing several events. Luring her classmates in with the prospect of free food, she was able to initiate several projects, including a fund raiser to buy 350 compact fluorescent light bulbs, which she handed out for free on the streets of D.C. She is determined to internalize environmental ethics in her everyday life.
Dan Knickelbein
Dan is already a major community organizer and is an active member in Oak Park’s Environment and Energy Commission. He participated in a number of various lobbying efforts regarding the climate bill, including a rally he organized through Oak Park, urging politicians to take action against climate change. Dan has also spearheaded environmental projects at his school including a light bulb and water bottle exchange, and a rain barrel promotion. He will be heading to MaCalester College next fall.
Shoua Lor
Shoua played an extremely active role in her high school’s environmental club, holding a variety of different leadership roles. She initiated the Kid Garden Mentor Project, where high school students volunteered at a local elementary school teaching children about gardening and science. Shoua is also the co-founder and co-chair of Sacramento Area Youth Sustainable Council (SAYSC)—a group that encourages youth involvement in government policy regarding environmental issues. She will be attending Sonoma State University next fall.
Julian Post
Strake Jesuit College Preparatory, Houston, TX
Despite enormous amounts of apathy at his school and several green club failures in the past, Julian has managed to rally his peers and form the school’s first environmental club. He lead and organized three separate recycling programs on earth day 2010, which included an electronics recycling drive that collected over 5,000 lbs of recyclable items, a paper recycling program, and a CFL drive where Green Team America distributed 250 energy-efficient light bulbs. He will be attending Tufts University in the fall.
Adam Raudonis
Westlake High School, Westlake Village, CA
Adam was elected as a sophomore to be part of the California Climate Champions group. He attended global meetings with fellow International Climate Champions and established local projects and campaigns. As a junior, he founded Students for Solar Schools. Through fundraising, he was able to purchase a 6.3kW DC photovoltaic solar array with 36 panels for his school. This system will power five classrooms, offsetting 270,000 lbs of CO2 over twenty years (equivalent to planting an acre and a half of trees!).
Zena Sabath
St. Agnes Academy, Missouri City, TX
Zena established Earth Week at her school. She arranged for keynote and secondary speakers, created t-shirts, bought supplies, and coordinated an organic bake-sale (just to name a few). She went on to become the founder and president of her school's Green Club, which now has over 100 active members. In addition, she worked with Houston Mayor's Youth Council, helping to launch Green Team America. She will be attending Bates College next fall.
Honorable Mention: Ian Byers-Gamber
Bloomington High School
Ian is an avid biker who uses biking to try and inspire and promote a more conscious and less wasteful society. Besides working in a bike shop, he was also the team leader for the World Solar Bicycle Race in Japan. Through his fundraising efforts, him and his classmates had the opportunity to learn about more energy efficient motors for racing bikes. His passion for biking makes him truly an ambassador for alternative transportation. He will be attending Pomona College next fall.
2009 Junior Scholarship Winners:
Mark Bessen
Palos Verdes High School, Palos Verdes
Mark will research and work to create multiple small-scale microbial fuel cells to explore how bacteria can transform organic material into energy. By using different stages of waste water as the nourishment source for the bacteria, he hopes to not only turn waste into a valuable resource, but also determine which medium is the most effective in terms of its carbon neutral energy output
Kristine Cabugao
Rodriguez High School, Fairfield
Kristine plans to launch Terra for her ACE Action Project. Terra is a local magazine that presents how climate change is altering the planet and why, what is being done, and what choices people have to make a difference with green consumer choices. Kristine also plans to create a website where people can share eco-friendly tips and ideas about increasing sustainability in their lives
Aliza Pickering
Met West High School, Oakland
Aliza plans to create a garden at Met West High as well as a curriculum that will emphasize the importance of growing your own food and buying locally grown produce. By working with the school cafeteria and local farmers, she hopes that the on-site garden can provide Met West and its students with a greater portion of locally grown food.
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Eli Draizen
The Drew School, Oakland
Eli is currently the president of a teen-run organization called Future Builders, a group of dedicated high school students who help coordinate benefit concerts and other fundraisers for environmental and humanitarian organizations worldwide. For his ACE Action project, he will leverage his work with Future Builders to promote global warming education and action by introducing clothing swaps, eco-friendly gear sales, and global warming speakers into their concert events.
Lydia Glenn-Murray
Head-Royce School, Oakland
Lydia will work to install a community garden in her local park to help educate her community about the effects of industrial agriculture on the earth and our bodies, while providing access to a healthier alternative. Lydia also plans on partnering with local restaurants to use their food scraps as compost as part of a larger effort to help her community achieve zero waste.
2009 Senior Scholarship Winners
Ahmina James
Berkeley High School, Berkeley
Ahmina studied within Berkeley High School’s School for Social Justice and Ecology. Ahmina has worked with Youth Together, Youth Radio and Bay Localize to educate and inspire others when it comes to environmental justice issues. She is also politically engaged, holding the mayor of Berkeley publicly accountable to her voters to ensure Berkeley steps up for the climate. Ahmina plans to major in Political Science or Criminal Justice in college.
Anna Foreman
The Bay School, San Francisco
Anna joined The Bay School’s Eco-Club during her Junior year. Anna has since taken on a leadership role and successfully managed two benefit concerts, monthly community service projects, and the implementation of a community garden. Furthering the work of the Eco-Club, Anna is calculating the carbon footprint of her school for her senior project.
Ben Wheeler
Rodriguez High School, Fairfield
Ben has significantly lowered his carbon emissions at home through installing a programmable thermostat, composting, unplugging energy vampires, using energy efficient appliances and more. Plus, Ben is taking his actions to the next level by building a living garden (called a “life lab”) at a local elementary school to help teach young kids about the environment. Using his video skills, Ben plans to craft a weekly Youtube show highlighting how people can save money and help the environment at the same time.
Jason Bade
Aragon High School, San Mateo
Jason has been an instrumental part of the efforts of Aragon High’s environmental club. To name just one accomplishment, he reconfigured Aragon’s Recycling Club so that a solid group of 80 student volunteers works diligently to help Aragon High effectively recycle and save thousands of dollars every year. Jason also blogs on how students can best green their high schools. He serves as a State Chair of a regional organization called the Green Youth Alliance. Jason was recently named a Climate Champion by the California Air Resources Board and he will lobby municipalities across the state to adopt municipal solar financing.
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Marlen Prado
Hilltop High School, San Francisco
After viewing ACE’s presentation at Hilltop High, Marlen was inspired to coordinate a composting and recycling program at Hilltop High School. She is also involved with the Youth Outreach Worker’s program and the SF league of Urban Gardeners. Marlen is passionate about cleaning up the environment, both to reduce global warming pollution and to protect herself and her family from dangerous toxins.
Raghav Aggarwal
The Harker School, San Jose
Raghav is the president of HEART – the Harker School’s environmental club and he is responsible for the entire school’s recycling initiative. He has organized school-wide assemblies on environmental issues, checked the tire pressure of all campus vehicles, and helped stop energy vampires on campus. He is also involved with the Student Advisory Council for Congressman Honda, as well as the Cupertino Teen Commission. Raghav is excited to gain additional training with ACE and he plans to study policy, management and planning through economics in college.
Robin Roettger
Sir Frances Drake High School, San Anselmo
Robin has studied within Sir Frances Drake High’s Studies of the Environment Academy. Her favorite project: she created a public service announcement about the negative effects of outdoor air pollution on human health and the environment. Robil also worked to re-certify her school as a green school and presented ideas on how to increase campus sustainability to her district’s Board of Trustees. Robin volunteers at a nearby elementary school and teaches students about the environment. She also is working with Sustainable Fairfax to show others how easy it is to produce some of your own food.
Yassaman Sarvian
Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica
With Team Marine, Santa Monica High School’s environmental group, Yassaman took action on the detrimental effects of plastic bags in her community. Through the QuikSCience Challenge, Team Marine launched an effective campaign to ban plastic bags entirely. They held rallies, protests, and created viral Youtube videos. Yassaman even testified at Santa Monica’s City Hall. Ultimately, they banned plastic bags in Santa Monica! In addition, she serves as the Commissioner of Environmental Affairs in her student body and coordinated her school’s Focus the Nation event earlier this year.
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Cynthia Gutierrez
Saint Matthias High School, Downey
Last year, Cynthia noticed the stark lack of any comprehensive recycling program at Saint Matthias High School. Banding together with a few other dedicated students, Cynthia catalyzed a Green Club on campus and launched a recycling program. Additionally, she’s helped organized several events to raise environmental awareness on campus.
Denise Siamey
Ann Sobrato High School, Morgan Hill
Denise is the President of Ann Sobrato High’s Fashion Club, whereby she promotes green designers and used, eco-chic clothing to the student body. Most recently, she designed Ann Sobrato’s first annual fashion magazine “Eco-Sexy,” which will give tips on how to fix up old clothes and introduce people to eco-designers. Denise firmly believes that a great education will help her achieve her environmental goals and she plans to use a law degree to continue to make a difference in the world.
Emily Lin
Las Lomas High School, Walnut Creek
Emily founded her high school’s first environmental club and swiftly transformed Las Lomas into a much greener school. Emily has launched programs ranging from improved recycling infrastructure to Waste Awareness Month, and even started a program to enable her peers to donate unwanted, unopened lunches instead of just tossing them. Before Emily continues on to college, she will spend a year in Taiwan volunteering at an organization called Earth Passengers, a group that introduces green permaculture technology in local communities.