Meet a Climate Champion: Summer Sorensen

Summer Sorensen (she/her) Is a sixteen-year-old climate activist from Northampton, MA. She is an environmental club leader for the Northampton High School Environmental Club, while also collaborating with Youth Climate Action Now, a group that empowers youth to have a voice on our climate crisis.  

What first inspired you to advocate for environmental change? 

I grew up around environmental advocacy. My mom is part of environmental work, so I got to personally see change that was being made in our community and nationwide. This really inspired me to advocate for environmental change, specifically at Northampton High School.  

What is a project that you are working on/ have worked on that you are proud of? 

At Northampton high school, we didn’t have a composting option for a very long time but our environment club has now implemented a composting program in our lunch room that is still up and running. Our solar panel and pollinator garden plans are also projects coming up. We have old solar panels in our school that don’t work anymore, so our goal is to remove them and fundraise money to get working ones. We also want to make the grounds at Northampton High school more environmentally friendly, we plan on doing this by adding pollinator gardens.  

Why do you think it’s important for the youth to have a voice?  

Because we are the future and if we don’t step up now there will be no change in the coming times. Having a voice now will also help us practice for when we have careers or when we want to teach our children about advocacy.  

What can the youth do to become more environmentally conscious and proactive? 

The first step is to educate ourselves on our current environmental issues by taking advantage of resources like environmental classes and clubs at schools, books, YouTube videos, town environmental committee meetings and more. It's important that youth take the knowledge and become proactive with it. They can do this by contacting state representatives about needed change or attending rallies so that their voices are heard. 

What is your favorite outdoor activity? 

Snowboarding, hiking, and running!  

Thanks to intern Audrey Quinn for preparing this profile.