Lily Jarosz
“Climate change means so much to me because of my Puerto Rican heritage. I have seen my people suffer at the hands of natural disasters that are exacerbated by climate change, such as hurricanes, and desire to lessen the severity, if not end, these disastrous storms that tear people's lives apart.”
Climate Change Maker Since 2020
COMMUNITY | Irwin
SCHOOL | Graduating Senior, Norwin High School
HOURS OF ACTION | 12+
ACTIONS & ACHIEVEMENTS |
Member: 2020 Get Out The Vote Leadership Team
Lily joined up with Communitopia in August of 2020 as part of the Get Out the Vote Leadership team. Through participating in Communitopia’s programming, Lily has grown her online meeting facilitation skills, event planning and goal setting. She writes, “Something that Communitopia has significantly helped me with is presenting in an online fashion. Although I have never been a shy or socially anxious person, presenting online via zoom poses a whole other challenge. It was difficult at first to create connections with your audience and really pull them in and show them why they should care about this topic at all. Communitopia luckily gave me the practice that I needed throughout many projects to hone my skills when it comes to establishing a connection with my virtual audience.”
Lily also shares that Communitopia has helped her to meet other like-minded youth fighting for climate justice- “Communitopia has really helped me to take meaningful action on climate change by connecting me with a wide range of individuals that are just as passionate about the issues that I am and that expose me to all kinds of different projects. In other words, Communitopia has really helped me to network and meet new people that have provided me with a bunch of new opportunities.”
Lily’s work with Communitopia is only one part of her activism. She serves on the Health and Environment Committee of Girl Gov, was an ACE (Alliance for Climate Education) Action Fellow this past fall. She is a current Intern with Protect PT, a local environmental advocacy organization that serves the Greater Pittsburgh Area. She’s participated in the Fairchild Challenge, which is a competition that includes creating a series of sustainability related projects, and participated in Norwin’s Envirothon Team, another competition that tests academic knowledge related to the environment.