Featured Planet Leaders

 

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Stay in the know with the latest in Planet Leader news!

Apply To Become A Young Planet Leader!

Each month we award one Young Planet Leader who is committed to creating a huge profound impact on our planet and inspiring others to do the same. Whether you become a Young Planet Leader or not, we encourage leaders to connect on our Discord and apply for one of our quarterly scholarships. and apply for one of our quarterly scholarships.

If you are between 10 and 22 years old, feel that your activities or programs Heal The Planet in a special and unique manner, apply for an award today!

As our monthly Young Planet Leader, you’ll have the opportunity to:

  • Share your story with our community of changemakers
  • Receive a $500 donation from our founder to further support your work 
  • Receive access to our quarterly scholarship and annual award applications.
  • Be featured on our website and social media channels
  • Access our alumni network and interact with other planet leaders

Young Planet Leaders will be chosen based on their passion, project’s impact, and alignment with our mission. While we can’t grant every submission, all applications will be carefully reviewed to celebrate the incredible work happening on our planet. To learn more about the specific qualities we seek in Young Planet Leaders, click here to view our selection criteria.

Young Planet Leaders

 

“We showed that we are united and that we, young people, are unstoppable.”

— Greta Thunberg

October 2024 Young Planet Leader – Jacqueline Prawira

October 2024 Young Planet Leader – Jacqueline Prawira

Jacqueline Prawira is a 19-year-old researcher and inventor from Mountain House, California. An avid bookworm since she was young, Jacqueline first explored the world beyond her horizons through reading. But she realized that as beautiful as the planet was on paper,...

September 2024 Young Planet Leader – Gitanjali Rao

September 2024 Young Planet Leader – Gitanjali Rao

Gitanjali Rao is an 18-year-old inventor, aspiring scientist, author, speaker, and an active promoter of STEM around the world. She was recognized as America's Top Young  Scientist and was a recipient of an EPA Presidential award for her patented invention of...

August 2024 Young Planet Leader – Alex Wagonfeld

August 2024 Young Planet Leader – Alex Wagonfeld

Alex Wagonfeld is a climate activist at The Nueva School in San Mateo, CA, who has taken on several climate initiatives to create an impact on the international, national, regional, and city-wide levels. Wagonfield has created an international movement for high...

July 2024 Young Planet Leader – Aarin Botha

July 2024 Young Planet Leader – Aarin Botha

Aarin Bothra is a rising junior at Oswego East High School in Oswego, Illinois. He is passionate about the environment, STEM, and astronomy. He loves to innovate and create meaningful change in his community. He noticed from a young age that his local community had...

June 2024 Young Planet Leader – Nithya Tammana

June 2024 Young Planet Leader – Nithya Tammana

Nithya Tammana, at just nine years old, is a passionate advocate for environmental conservation, particularly in the realm of water sustainability. Growing up with a deep appreciation for the natural world, Nithya was inspired to take action after witnessing the...

May 2024 Young Planet Leader – Anaya Raikar

May 2024 Young Planet Leader – Anaya Raikar

Anaya Raikar is a junior high school student from Brookline, Massachusetts. She is an intern at Our Climate Massachusetts as well as the MIT Climate Action Through Education program. With Our Climate, she has been heavily involved in the writing and advocacy process...

April 2024 Young Planet Leader – Grace Kejo

April 2024 Young Planet Leader – Grace Kejo

Grace Kejo is a 17-year-old educator and advocate for equitable systems of learning. Her work includes research, organizing, public speaking, and advocating for policy change. Her biggest project currently is WeAreChange, a youth organization she founded to provide...

March 2024 Young Planet Leader – Ivano Perich

March 2024 Young Planet Leader – Ivano Perich

Ivano Perich is a 16-year-old scientist, inventor, and sustainability advocate working towards the positive impact of an ambitious global biodiversity framework. His unique projects such as predicting systems in green hydrogen production were recognized nationally and...

November 2023 Young Planet Leader – Audrey Duenas

November 2023 Young Planet Leader – Audrey Duenas

Audrey Dueñas is a dedicated 16-year-old environmental enthusiast who works to preserve the environment for future generations to come. With a profound love for the ocean and a passion for scuba diving, Audrey actively contributes to the preservation of marine life....

October 2023 Young Planet Leader – Patience Nabukalu

October 2023 Young Planet Leader – Patience Nabukalu

Patience Nabukalu is a climate, gender, and human rights activist. She is an organizer for Friday’s for Future Uganda, and the founder of Youth Empowerment Initiative Uganda.  Her efforts are to fight against wetland degradation, reduce fossil fuel production, and...

September 2023 Young Planet Leader – Anagha Iyer

September 2023 Young Planet Leader – Anagha Iyer

She has met with various city officials across South Florida to advocate for sustainable practices and spread awareness. So far the group has fundraised, gone petitioning around their neighborhoods, and had multiple meetings to discuss current environmental issues....

August 2023 Young Planet Leader – Amrutha Rao

August 2023 Young Planet Leader – Amrutha Rao

Amrutha Rao is a 16-year-old innovator, entrepreneur, and researcher who is dedicated to addressing climate change through science, engineering, and technology. Her projects include a patent-pending invention, an environmental app, original science research, and the...

August 2022 Young Planet Leader – Dhruv Girish

August 2022 Young Planet Leader – Dhruv Girish

Dhruv Girish is the 16-year-old founder of the Scholarly Program. He started the Scholarly Program in 2019 as a virtual coaching program to advance the growth opportunity of his kindred understudies and to create sustainable gardens throughout the community. Dhruv’s...

May 2022 Young Planet Leader – Dante Benedetti

May 2022 Young Planet Leader – Dante Benedetti

Dante Benedetti is the 8-year-old founder of Little Hands for the Planet. Dante’s mission is to teach and inform kids about environmental problems on our planet. He would like kids to be more aware of the products they use and to choose products that do less harm to...

April 2022 Young Planet Leader – Sri Nihal Tammana

April 2022 Young Planet Leader – Sri Nihal Tammana

Sri Nihal Tammana is the 12-year-old founder of Recycle My Battery. Recycle My Battery was created with the intention to make the Earth a better place to live. Nihal came to understand that batteries are an essential part of the world. People weren’t just going to...

December 2021 Young Planet Leader – Kate Gilman Williams

December 2021 Young Planet Leader – Kate Gilman Williams

Kate Gilman Williams is a 12-year-old animal advocate, author and the founder of Kids Can Save Animals and Club 15. She launched Kids Can Save Animals to connect her generation with world-renowned conservation organizations, technologists, policymakers, and global...

November 2021 Young Planet Leader – Apurva Iyengar

November 2021 Young Planet Leader – Apurva Iyengar

Apurva Iyengar is an 18-year-old changemaker working to create unity in the Gen Z environmental movement. She is the founder of Youth.ify, an organization with the goal of unifying the youth environmental movement by giving otherwise isolated young environmentalists a...

October 2021 Young Planet Leader – Rachel Bass

October 2021 Young Planet Leader – Rachel Bass

Rachel is the founder of Give2FosterKidz, an organization whose mission is to provide children in foster homes with clothes, toys, and games. Growing up in a house with two adopted siblings allowed her to realize how lucky her siblings are for having a loving family...

September 2021 Young Planet Leader – Eric Vives

September 2021 Young Planet Leader – Eric Vives

Eric is the founder of the Miami-hub for Labdoo.org a UNESCO recognized nonprofit that works to collect used electronic devices, then upload offline open access educational software and delivers them to organizations around the world without generating additional...

August 2021 Young Planet Leader – Sophia Diaz

August 2021 Young Planet Leader – Sophia Diaz

Sophia Diaz is a 14-year-old ocean advocate from South Florida, USA. She is very passionate about sharks and sea conservation and has been dreaming of becoming a Marine Biologist since she was 6 years old. Sophia has also been a Girl Scout since Kindergarten.  At 10,...

July 2021 Young Planet Leader – Stephanie Evans

July 2021 Young Planet Leader – Stephanie Evans

Stephanie Evans is the 17-year-old founder of the organisation, “Seas of Change.” Seas of Change is an Australian organisation that aims to raise funds and awareness for a variety of marine and environmental conservation efforts, including dugongs, sea turtles,...

June 2021 Young Planet Leader – Misimi Isimi

June 2021 Young Planet Leader – Misimi Isimi

Misimi Isimi is the president of Eco-Kids Green Club. She is a 14year-old waste activist and a child environmentalist whose untiring effort is to create a sense of hopefulness for the future. She is resolute in ensuring the general public learns how to make the best...

May 2021 Young Planet Leader – Haaziq Kazi

May 2021 Young Planet Leader – Haaziq Kazi

Haaziq Kazi is a 14-year-old innovator, changemaker, student and professional speaker. Haaziq is passionate about the oceans and tackling the plastic problem afflicting  oceans and marine life. At the age of 11 he was invited to a TEDEd talk in New York to talk  about...

April 2021 Young Planet Leader – Lara Rudar

April 2021 Young Planet Leader – Lara Rudar

Lara Rudar is a 17-year-old artist, filmmaker, and environmental advocate based in the United Arab Emirates. Her short films have been screened in film festivals around the world and in 2019, she received the Nikon and Emirates Airlines ‘Young Filmmakers Award’ at the...

March 2021 Young Planet Leader – Hannah Testa

March 2021 Young Planet Leader – Hannah Testa

Hannah Testa is an 18-year-old sustainability advocate, international speaker and founder of Hannah4Change, an organization dedicated to fighting issues that impact the planet.   She is passionate about issues that affect our planet and she has been using her...

February 2021 Young Planet Leader – Alicia Serratos

February 2021 Young Planet Leader – Alicia Serratos

Alicia Serratos is a 14-year-old, activist, wrestler and Girl Scout. Alicia starred in the documentary The Need to Grow, has been involved in numerous projects and volunteers her time to different causes. She has started Seed Libraries, planted community fruit trees,...

January 2021 Young Planet Leader – Aman Sharma

January 2021 Young Planet Leader – Aman Sharma

Aman Sharma is a 17 year old climate activist from New Delhi, India. In May 2019, Aman petitioned to the government for Declaring a National Climate Emergency on Change.org. He managed to collect over 370,000 signatures on the petition and subsequently helping create...

December 2020 Young Planet Leader – Maya Tharoo

December 2020 Young Planet Leader – Maya Tharoo

Maya Tharoo is a 16-year-old philanthropist, public speaker, and founder of Miracle Makers Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting premature babies and their families. Maya herself was a premature baby, born at 28 weeks at the Arnold Palmer...

November 2020 Young  Planet Leader Adam Avin

November 2020 Young Planet Leader Adam Avin

Teen mental health education advocate, Adam Avin, created the Wuf Shanti Children’s Wellness Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization, to teach mindfulness and social emotional learning, so children 3-17 years-old can live in health and wellness & peace and...

October 2020 Young Planet Leader –  Taylor Moxey

October 2020 Young Planet Leader – Taylor Moxey

Taylor Moxey is a 14-year-old internationally known entrepreneur, author and philanthropist. At eight-years old, Taylor turned a forty-dollar loan into the growing enterprise: Taylor Moxey, LLC.  Taylor’s legacy began with the start-up of her cupcake company: ‘Taylor...