By Greta Busch-Castro (she/her) high school sophomore & Taarika Sethee (she/her) high school freshman, Youth4Climate members
Over 130 people attended our 2025 Voices in the Storm: Youth4Climate Summit, with more than 85 youth representing 21 high schools, 2 middle schools, and 4 colleges. This undeniably shows that youth are stepping up to confront the climate crisis. We are not waiting for someone else to take action– we took initiative then, we’re doing it now, and we’ll keep fighting in the future.
The Voices in the Storm Summit was a beautiful event that brought together students, teachers, and activists in a space to collaborate and learn about the climate crisis from different perspectives, but most importantly, the action and potential every person holds. As a youth activist, it is essential to connect with your community. Youth often feel like they’re the only ones who care about the environment. With events like these, youth activists and concerned community members can feel a belonging that allows them to put their feelings into tangible action.
We learned something new from each speaker and their point of view. Juan Reynoso, our keynote speaker, emphasized the profound connection all people (Indigenous or not) have with the land itself. Next up was our climate justice panel. Panelist Victoria Abrenica shared how creativity can go a long way in the movement. Melissa Elder brought up ideas of how materialistic our society is, yet many others are happy with much less. Daniel Hernandez shared some ways he is involved with his community right now and how other youth can make a difference as well. Guadalupe Rojas shared her personal experience in the movement and what she has done in her community.
Our workshops were interactive and informative. Emma Weibel, Youth v. Oil Intern, and Ky Ngo Dennis, LMFT, Spiritual Somatic Therapist taught us how to navigate climate distress and climate anxiety. Taarika Sethee, Youth4Climate member, and Blanca Maribel Lozano-Willey, Associate Executive Director at BIPOC Support Foundation led Unleash Your Power: Using Your Skills to Drive Climate Justice. Daryn Tarasewicz, Youth v. Oil member, and Serena Pelka, Policy Advocate at Climate Action Campaign taught up about Climate Legislation and Policy 101. Juan Reynoso, Indigenous activist and Co-Founder of The Queer Sol Collective, led From Theory to Practice: Applying Climate Solutions using Indigenous Way of Knowing.
Taarika’s Reflection
As one of the summit organizers, it was incredibly powerful to see everything we had worked on in our weekly calls come together. The event was incredibly seamless due to our amazing volunteers and youth leaders. The divisions between gender, age, race, or anything else had vanished – even if only for a couple of hours. For those couple of hours, we were a strong, unified, unbreakable wall of voices crying out to the world demanding a liveable future.
I coordinated all of the speakers for the event and had the honor of meeting and connecting with so many incredible people from all different areas of climate activism. It was rewarding being able to hear the speakers’ ideas before the event, and then watching them present and share their values, beliefs, and experiences with others. Every speaker had such a unique perspective and crafted their own role in the movement which is what makes the climate activist movement more than saving the environment. More than stopping climate change, it’s about connecting with a diverse, versatile, beautiful quilt of people. I am so grateful to be able to be in a comfortable space where I was able to be authentically myself with no restrictions on the day of the Summit.
After this event, I was able to visualize what my ideal world would look like. A place where I can connect with someone I don’t even know, just for a shared purpose. A place with so much burning passion, flaming potential, that we have the power to ignite together. I couldn’t go to sleep that night. I lay there, just paralyzed with an overpowering sense of gratitude for my personal growth. Just a year and a half before I didn’t understand half the words on our weekly Youth v. Oil meetings, and now I had become a part of the movement. But it was more than just that, I felt gratitude for every single person there and most of all, gratitude for a purpose. I was grateful for a world I have been able to cherish, and hope future generations can too.
Greta’s Reflection
This summit wasn’t just an event to sit back and listen, it was a call to action. The climate crisis should be taken seriously, and that is exactly what the Voices in the Storm: Youth4Climate Summit embodied, rallying together youth and adults alike to unite.
For me, this new experience was deeply personal. As an emcee of this event, it truly meant the world to me, since in today’s world, it is hard to find a community that actually does something about the climate crisis and values youth voices. The number of people who gathered to take action moved me deeply. This is real action. That sense of reality slapped me in the face. Standing in front of more than 100 people is intimidating and exhilarating. How is that, as a young person, I’ve already gotten this far? It’s moments like these that remind me how just showing up is enough to make change.
And that greater sense of purpose? It was already in the room. About 27 schools attended this summit, and every single person I spoke to at the end for our closing activity had something to take away. Each person left with a new ideas in their mind, maybe even enough to start the beginning of a climate activist’s journey.
Looking back, I know this summit will stay with me. As someone who participated firsthand in this well-organized climate summit, I’m about 99% sure I will be attending every year, even once I’m in college. And to you, the reader, we genuinely recommend becoming part of that too next year. It’s not just about learning; it is about a greater purpose– having a community, connecting, and becoming part of the movement. A future worth fighting for.
