Glenwood Springs High School junior Allie Allred has always been passionate about climate issues, but she’s never had the opportunity to attend one of the many Youth Climate Summits held around the globe each year — until now.

On Friday, Allred and over 90 other Colorado high school students — many from rural areas — will head to Carbondale’s Third Street Center for the inaugural Colorado Youth Climate Summit.

The two-day, cost-free climate intensive is an opportunity for students to delve into regional climate issues, build connections and learn how to make an impact. Modeled after the Youth Climate Summit created by the Wild Center in New York, the Colorado Summit joins a network of over 60 past and present summit sites around the world. 

The event is funded by Lyra Colorado, a Denver-based education nonprofit, and organized in partnership with Carbondale’s Wild Rose Education. 

Lyra strives to bring nimble, diverse education opportunities to urban and rural communities through immersive, innovative events like the summit. 

The nonprofit also actively supports the development of green skills for the modern workforce.  

“We are very interested in climate literacy,” Lyra CEO Mary Seawell said. “We want youth to have economic opportunity in their communities and believe that, for example, a ranching kid is going to need to know how to do different ranching practices, or a youth that is very involved in  recreation, and will potentially get a job in the recreation industry, that they have these skills. So we focus a lot on this workforce, green skills piece.”

Students at the summit will spend Friday and Saturday building friendships and learning about climate issues and solutions. They’ll even have an opportunity to choose, plan and execute a local climate action project. 

The summit can also help eligible students fulfill the experiential learning requirements they need to earn a Colorado Seal of Climate Literacy. The seal is a diploma endorsement championed by Lyra and created by Colorado Senate Bill 24-014.

A handful of designated youth leaders won’t just attend the summit — they’ll help lead it. Earlier this year, a group of nine students, including Allred, took the reins while organizing the event.

“(The summit) was something we believed was needed because we’re working in so many rural communities and seeing the interest from youth there,” Seawell said. “We didn’t want, as adults, to come in and say what they should be doing or should be interested in. So we’re basically facilitating their work.”

Since October, the student leaders have met bi-weekly to organize the summit, choosing everything from the event’s date to the agenda.

They rounded up hosts for over two dozen activities and workshops, from a simulation game led by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to community composting with Evergreen Zero Waste. 

The students even decided to bring elected officials and policymakers to the summit. On Saturday, they’ll get a chance to ask state and local leaders questions and receive feedback on their climate action project plans. Officials attending the summit include Pitkin County Commissioner Jeffrey Woodruff, Sean Rocha, a Constituent Advocate from the office of Congressman Jason Crow and Kathy Gebhardt, a Colorado State Board of Education member.

Monika Okula, a science teacher at Yampah Mountain High School, is one of the advisors who guided the youth leaders throughout the planning process. 

“My role isn’t to lecture them. It’s to lead. It’s to amplify,” Okula said. “I’m behind the scenes,  more of a mentor-type so to say, connecting the dots between climate science and real world action and guiding students to dive into partnerships, think through complex systems and navigate how to launch their projects. So rather than just thinking about it and learning about it, making sure that they could get those done.”

The list of speakers Allred invited includes Jacelyn Downey from the Audubon Rockies, who will present the workshop “Art, Nature and Our Climate Future.” 

Although Allred is looking forward to several workshops, she’s most excited to meet new mentors and connect with her peers and community. 

It’s also a rare chance for Allred to have honest conversations about climate issues with her peers. “I feel like some kids are interested in it, but it’s a pretty heavy topic, so it’s not something that we just talk about,” she said.

Okula has seen a lot of climate anxiety, or distress about dangerous climate changes, in her students. According to a 2022 environmental impact survey by the Harris Poll and the National 4-H Council, around 89% of teens regularly think about the environment, and most are more worried than hopeful. 

Okula encourages her students to transform climate anxiety into climate agency. 

“Their curiosity has grown and they’re really connecting what’s happening in our world with thinking about the future,” she said. “That’s super significant. Instead of thinking about what’s happening now, it’s looking 20 years into the future and seeing how they can make the world a better place.”

By the end of the summit, students are expected to walk away with minds primed for action and a renewed sense of learning and hope — ready to carry lessons from the weekend back to schools and communities across the state.

“The sense of learning doesn’t end at the classroom door. It’s going to flow into rivers, farms, food systems, future careers,” Okula said, explaining what she’s most looking forward to at the summit. “Seeing that, knowing that they have that pathway to get to and seeing the overall project and how they execute everything and honestly, seeing the smiles on their faces, knowing that they did such a huge thing.”

Visit coyouthclimatesummit.org to join the youth wait list for this year’s summit or, for potential presenters and workshop leaders, the interest list for next year.