Alina Zaidi
“My story with climate change is personal and one close to my heart. My parents were born and raised in India. Because they immigrated to the US, my experiences growing up have been very different than theirs. They always told me their childhood stories and of India's beauty. My parents took me back to India a couple of times when I was young, but I don't remember those trips. After many years, we finally found time to travel to India the summer after I finished 8th grade. I was thrilled to relive my parents' experiences for myself, and get to know how India really is. But little did I know that my experience would be completely different.
My parents are from New Delhi, the capital of India. When we got there, there was so much pollution and trash on the streets that we couldn't step out of the house for the majority of our trip, because it would damage our lungs. When we did, we had to wear a mask. My parents weren't able to show me around because everything changed so much in those 20 years. This experience opened my eyes to the harsh realities of the effects of climate change. In just 20 years, Delhi changed so drastically. Soon, the city may become inhabitable. And ever since that experience, I have advocated for climate change action in various ways, to be able to bring back the clean air that inhabitants of various cities haven’t breathed in years.”
Climate Change Maker Since 2021
COMMUNITY | Sewickley
SCHOOL | Rising 12th grader, North Allegheny Senior High School
HOURS OF ACTION | 50+
ACTIONS & ACHIEVEMENTS |
Co-Founder: Sustainability in Our Schools
Mentee: Communitopia Climate Action Small-Group Planning
Youth Planning Committee Member: 2021 Seeds of Change Conference
Presenter: 2021 Seeds of Change Conference
Grant Recipient: 2021 Seeds of Change Conference
Member: Pittsburgh Youth for Climate Action (PYCA)
Alina is the co-founder of Sustainability in our Schools (SIOS), with the mission of empowering the next generation to make the right choices about the environment and follow a sustainable lifestyle by focusing on elementary & middle schools students and helping them gain awareness about sustainability. Alina has worked with Communitopia in planning and developing programming and actions for SIOS. She is a regular participant in PYCA, and served as a youth planning lead for the 2021 Seeds of Change Conference. Through her work with Communitopia, she shares that she has learned a number of leadership skills such as public speaking, virtual facilitation skills, and practical leadership skills that can be applied to her work at SIOS. Alina’s vision for the future is, “I’m hopeful that in the future, when climate change and sustainability is incorporated into science curriculums at every school around the country, students will grow up making sustainable choices subconsciously, as it would be ingrained into their daily lives since they grew up learning about it. This will allow us to finally limit climate change’s adverse effects.”
Alina is also the founder and president of North Allegheny’s sustainability club called SustainNA. In fall of 2020, She served as a Campaign Fellow with the District 28 State Representative candidate Emily Skopov, and worked with her to create a documentary about the importance of sustainability and easy ways to start a home garden. She is also a part of the Fresh Voices for Clean Air campaign, which is a group of students from Pittsburgh, PA and Birmingham, AL who meet to create, develop, and execute air-quality related projects.