Youth Leadership Program
Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu
A virtual exchange program for high school students and STEAM educators – Summer – Fall 2021
The Youth Leadership Program (YLP) with Fiji, Tonga, and Tuvalu is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State and administered by Legacy International. The program is five months in length including a three-week virtual exchange program from August 16-September 5, followed by four months of community action plans. Twenty – two high school students and three adult educators from the three countries were selected to participate and gain valuable training in community leadership and environmental sustainability. They were joined by six US teen environmental activists who joined them.
During the program, youths:
- Explored how STEAM knowledge is applied to building climate resiliency.
- Explored STEAM careers and develop educational and career pathways.
- Developed leadership and peer education skills
- Focussed on building innovative sustainability engineering solutions. You will be able to:
- Describe viable, sustainable solutions to local environmental issues;
- Use the design thinking process to plan and deliver a sustainability solution to an issue you are passionate about (i.e., Climate Crisis, Resource Depletion, Waste Removal, Pollution, Overfishing, Overhunting, Deforestation, Mass Extinction of Species, Loss of Biodiversity, etc.);
- Work in a team to deliver a community awareness project on a selected sustainability issue.
Community Based Projects
Between September and December 2021– Participants complete a community-based project implementing their solution and helping peers become environmental change makers. They are working in small groups to plan and implement amazing projects.
Green Unity (Tonga – students are working on improvements at their boarding school)
- They have begun their hot compost piles and they are developing their liquid fertilizer!
- The building of their vertical farm has begun. Their vision – to create farming solutions that are affordable and easy to replicate in the local communities.
- Green Unity is quickly building its rocket stove and has developed a prototype that can also heat water for maximum efficiency thus utilizing less wood in meal preparation.
Plasfree Valu (Tuvalu)
- Students joined forces with the waste management department to clean up the local airport runway and nearby areas!
- The next event is their beach clean-up. They are inviting students and teachers from the local high school to come out!
S.I.X. Sustainability Integrated Xposition (Fiji)
- They are building a small greenhouse at a home for the elderly in Fiji. Initial meetings with the home have been completed and a site for the greenhouse has been determined!
- Coca-Cola is on board with assisting in their recycling initiative!
- An initial prototype for cleaning up plastics from the river is ready for testing and will be making its way into a pool this week to test it out before installation!
Eco Innovations (Fiji)
- The Tree-Sure-Hunt team will contribute to Fiji’s goal of planting 30 Million trees in 15 years.
- Their goal is to collect 10,000 seeds from coconut and teak trees around Fiji for planting.
- Future Forest Fiji is assisting Eco Innovations in this project. Eco Innovations hopes to travel to their farms to help in planting.