My 8th Grade project is an exploration of climate risk, resiliency, and justice, which after much evolving and changing, has mostly manifested in a website that I built. When I chose my topic, it was originally going to be about climate change and extreme weather but that slowly morphed into further investigation of climate change solutions and the inequity of the climate crisis’s impact. Over the past summer, I had considered several different ideas for my 8th-grade project topic and never really came to a decision.  I had an interest in many of the topics but climate change was the only one that I had a concrete idea of who my mentor would be. I have had an interest in, and fear of climate change for a long time and have written several school papers related to the topic.  I also have a deep admiration for Greta Thunberg and the climate activism movement.  Over the course of the project, I realized that I wanted the project to be focusing more on solutions to climate change rather than a project that focused on the dire threat of climate change without actually giving a way to solve the problem. While the finished product of the project was not exactly what I was envisioning when I started the project, I have worked hard on it and feel satisfied with the finished project. 

                   My mentor is Ruth Heindel, a professor at Kenyon College in Ohio. She teaches environmental studies and specializes in polar environmental change. She is an old friend of our family and was a colleague of my father. We met around 6 times over Zoom and she helped me brainstorm ideas for my project and was the person who had the suggestion to make a website for my final product. We discussed different climate news and solutions and she helped keep me on task. I was quite nervous before every time we met but once we started talking I became more comfortable and open. She was a very competent and understanding mentor who had a major impact on the way my 8th Grade project developed. 

                     Over the development of my project, I learned a large multitude of things about my topic and about myself as a learner and creator. Throughout the project, I learned a lot about climate change constantly while taking in news and podcasts I learned about many theories, ideas, and extreme weather crises. One of the most important things I learned, and that was reiterated in almost everything I read and heard, is that the impacts of climate change will not be felt equally throughout the planet. The most wealthy and privileged people, nations, and corporations who are creating the most greenhouse gasses and driving the destruction of our planet will be much less impacted by the crisis. Instead, low-income, vulnerable, and marginalized communities and countries will be at the most risk but will have the least resources to deal with the crisis.  Another vital thing that I learned about the climate crisis is that we have many solutions at hand. If we can get governments, leaders, and people in power to take extensive action on climate change we have many ways to manage the crisis. For myself as a student and learner, the 8th Grade project was definitely a challenge. It was hard for me to finish a completely independent project without much structure or timeline. I felt like my project was going in many different directions and I wasn’t quite sure where to focus my work. I learned that it is easier for me to focus on one aspect of my project and get it done before moving on to the next aspect. Overall, my project has taught me many things not just about my topic but also about myself. 

                    One of the first things that I did on my project was research. I attended a college class (by video) taught by my mentor about the science behind our warming poles and planet and then went to a talk by the author Jonathan Safran Foer. I also looked at several different international and national organizations tracking climate change including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the  National Risk Index. I wasn’t totally clear on what the final product would be but I wanted to do an abundance of exploration and research on the topic. For the final product,  I was first considering a sort of presentation or slide show but then I had an idea of making a short book or magazine.  I discarded that because printing a book would be using the earth’s resources which were sort of defeating the purpose of the project. Ruth then had the idea for a website that seemed like it would work. I used a website builder to start making a small website. The website builder was helpful but I still found it incredibly difficult to use and manage. I worked persistently and the site slowly took form. I believe I acquired a new skill set that I can use in the future. One thing I found particularly interesting and inspiring when looking at climate solutions was Soul Fire Farm. Soul Fire Farm is a farm in northern New York owned by a woman of color. They work on addressing the climate crisis and treating the earth sustainably and with dignity while also working to close the racial wealth gap and provide healthy, organic food to vulnerable communities. I am proud of how much work I have put into this project and I feel like I can take this experience into the future and keep looking at the climate crisis as we move in an ever more dire direction.

                   The 8th Grade project really made me think about climate change in a deep and nuanced way.  Many of the times I see or hear a story or article about climate change I skip over it because thinking about it makes me feel hopeless or depressed. I think this project made me have hope for the future and really convinced me that there is a possibility for us to come together and this problem.