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A youth environmental leadership movement · Building Bridges Through Rotary
Growing green leaders, from the classroom to the world.
We educate, equip and connect young people to lead on climate, sustainability and peace. Through free, proven curriculum, hands on challenges and the global network of Rotary, every student can grow from learning about a problem to leading the solution in their own community.
In partnership with CNN Call to Earth, The Environmental Xperience at EarthX and Rotary. See the Top 10
Launch day · October 22, 2026 · ½ Earth Day
“Instead of trying to attract young leaders, let’s build them.”
Steve Bender, Rotary Club of Newport Beach
Watch · CAVU Climate Innovation Challenge
Discover your entry point.
Our roots
Created at the Environmental Xperience at EarthX.
Growing Green Leaders grew out of years of conversations at EarthX in Dallas, where Rotarians, educators, scientists and students meet each spring to share what works. Since EarthX launched a Rotary stage in 2023, educators and young people have moved from the audience to the microphone.
Growing Green Leaders was born at the Environmental Xperience at EarthX on April 22, 2026, where our own student team took the stage to interview Past RI President Barry Rassin.
Visit the Environmental Xperience at EarthX →
Meet Leia Lowery
Educator, climate leader and Co-Founder of The Climate Initiative, Leia has joined us at EarthX in Dallas every year since 2024. Her work training teachers to bring climate solutions into classrooms helped shape Growing Green Leaders.
Read Leia’s story →
Shivi Kumar takes her research to the United Nations.
On October 19, 2026, Shivi, a member of the Rotary Club of Newport Beach and our Growing Green Leaders team, and Founder of the Mind Matters Foundation, was invited to give a formal briefing in Geneva during the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s review of Austria, focusing on child health equity, accountability in medical policy and turning scientific evidence into protections for young people.
Her research bridges computational neuroscience and health economics, with work at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania. Congratulations, Shivi!
Where Rotary Reefs began.
Rotary Reefs began in Bocas del Toro, Panama, when Rotary Club of Newport Beach President Steve Bender noticed how few fish and how little live coral were left on the reefs. Working with Doug Marcy of the Caribbean Coral Restoration Center, the club built its first small reefs as a proof of concept.
Since then, Rotary clubs across the United States and Canada have sponsored reefs on their own, together with other clubs, or in partnership with local schools. Members like Sophia D’Angelo travel to Bocas del Toro to work alongside local communities, from the reefs to the classroom.
From a Vermont classroom to Bahamian reefs.
One of the most inspiring stories this year comes from a landlocked state. At Randolph Union High School in Randolph, Vermont, teacher Deb Schaner has trained young divers year after year, raised the money one bake sale at a time and put her students in the water beside real scientists. Her SCUBA team is now the Coral Reef Interact Club, and their Rotary Reef Education Project is ranked #6 in 2026 Top 10 of 100 Projects in 100 Countries.
After a coral repair trip to the Bahamas, Deb and two of her student divers shared what they learned at the Environmental Xperience at EarthX 2026 in Dallas, where they met Past RI President Barry Rassin, who has championed the team ever since. This January, 17 students head to the Exuma Cays for their third coral restoration expedition, living aboard a dive boat and working alongside Perry Institute for Marine Science scientists to plant critically endangered coral on damaged reefs, with all ten Rotary clubs in the Bahamas supporting the trip.
As Deb puts it, young people need something to care about, and the ocean needs people who care about it. The Rotary Club of Newport Beach is working with her to make the team the official high school program and Interact club of Rotary Reefs, and to package their approach so other schools can follow.
Want to start a program like this at your school, or connect your Rotary club with the team? Contact Deb Schaner, teacher and Interact club advisor at Randolph Union High School.
The Randolph Union dive team with Perry Institute scientists in The Bahamas, tending coral nurseries and heading into the water. Photos: Randolph Reef Divers.
Planting a future for the Great Green Macaw.
Only 500 to 1,000 Great Green Macaws are left in the wild. The birds nest almost only in the hollows of the mountain almond, or almendro, tree, and its seeds are one of their key foods. Since 2020, community volunteers have planted more than 15,000 almendro trees across the Bocas del Toro archipelago, with the goal of returning the Great Green Macaw to the islands by 2030.
Members of the Rotary Club of Newport Beach, including Sophia D’Angelo and Vaill Balaban, have joined the effort in the field, planting trees alongside a volunteer from MiAmbiente, Panama’s Ministry of Environment.
One path, many ways in.
Growing Green Leaders brings together educators, nonprofits and Rotary clubs so no one has to build curriculum from scratch. Pick your starting point below, then climb the five steps of the Green Leadership Path.
Five steps from curious student to global leader. Enter at any step.
- 1
Learn
Build climate literacy with The Climate Initiative’s Climate Action Leadership Program.
The Climate Initiative - 2
Create
Turn an action plan into a short film that moves people.
CAVU Media Toolkit - 3
Act
Take the project off screen and into the community.
Changemaker Award - 4
Lead
Mentor younger students, join Rotaract and become an IEP Peace Ambassador.
Rotaract · IEP - 5
Represent
Present your work on a global stage alongside leaders and experts.
Environmental Xperience
Many ways to grow.
Youth Climate Innovation Challenge
Six months of free curriculum, a climate solution video and an Earth Day showcase on April 22, 2027.
Learn more →Green Diamond Challenge
High school and college teams design greener ballparks and pitch live on Earth Day in Dallas.
Learn more →PlanetSustain Internship
A four month virtual climate action internship for Interactors and Rotaractors in South Asia.
Learn more →Climate Leaders, Peace Leaders
A pathway into the free IEP Ambassador Program for participants and mentors.
Learn more →Every project, measured four ways: 4-7-8-17.
Growing Green Leaders projects are reviewed against Rotary’s Four-Way Test, Rotary’s Areas of Focus, IEP’s Pillars of Positive Peace and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Students learn that good environmental work is also good for people and for peace.
Explore the 4-7-8-17 framework →Free resources for students, teachers and clubs.
Everything in one place, organized by who you are and what you want to do next.
Climate Basics
Teacher Toolkit
Grow with us all year long.
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Register a student or classroom, volunteer as a mentor or judge, or become a sponsor. Rotary, Interact and Rotaract clubs can advance Rotary’s 7th Area of Focus by bringing the program to local schools. Sign up is free, and we follow Rotary International’s youth protection guidance every step of the way. Growing Green Leaders launched on Half Earth Day, October 22, 2026. Registration is open through November 15, 2026, or until 30 teams have signed up, whichever comes first.
- Register by November 15, 2026. Sign up a student, classroom, or Interact or Rotaract club. Registration closes early once 30 teams have signed up.
- Adopt a school. Introduce the program to a local teacher or Interact club.
- Mentor or judge. Share your expertise with a student team.
- Sponsor. Fund prizes and recognition for young leaders.
- Partner. Join the coalition behind the program.