Seven Generations Ahead (SGA) has been sending high school students to the annual United Nations climate conference, also known as the Conference of Parties (COP) since 2019. Through SGA’s It’s Our Future (IOF) program, Chicago area high school students of all backgrounds are empowered to work together towards climate justice in their schools and communities, and some are able to take that advocacy to the global stage at COP. For many IOF students, the trip to COP is transformative and eye-opening, solidifying their commitment to the fight for climate justice. As we’re preparing to send students to COP29 in Azerbaijan this year, we caught up with some IOF alumni who went to COP in recent years, and are sharing highlights about how COP shaped their activism.

COP26, Glasgow, Scotland, 2021

Lily Aaron is a 2022 graduate of Evanston Township High School. Her time at COP26 was inspiring, but she found her inspiration from the thousands of activists there, not world leaders. “I found that the most generative spaces weren’t the ones populated by heads of state, but those filled with civil society actors and young people,” she said. “This experience underscored the critical need to make climate policy more accessible to those it affects most. The global solidarity I witnessed among marginalized communities deepened my understanding of diverse climate impacts and the necessity of ongoing collaboration.”

Aaron continues her environmental advocacy in her undergraduate studies at Pitzer College, where she’s pursuing a degree in Environmental Science. Some of her coursework includes Environmental Justice, Politics of Sustainable Water, Insect Ecology, and American Suburbia and Its Consequences. She is also a Fellow at the Robert Redford Conservancy, a hub for sustainable, climate-justice oriented research and discovery, where she has done a variety of mycology and climate literacy-related projects. Aaron is also the sustainability coordinator of Pitzer’s Green Bike Program. 

Her experience at COP26 helped solidify her commitment to the global struggle for climate justice.

She says, “If I can play any role in the collective empowerment that will drive our liberation, then I’m there!”

Sophie Ball graduated from Oak Park River Forest High School (OPRF) in 2022. Her time in IOF and her trip to COP26 have translated to work she’s doing now as an undergrad at King’s College in London. 

“I am currently leading a project to ensure that within three years, everyone at the university will receive some form of sustainability education in their formal curriculum,” says Ball. “My experiences at IOF have helped tremendously in brainstorming solutions and having the leadership and speaking skills necessary to be successful with this project.”

Jelena Collins, also a 2022 graduate of OPRF, said: “I think going to COP solidified my goal of eventually ending up doing work on climate policy – I believe that the world’s current climate policies are weak and lenient but at the same time that the best way to make real change is indeed through policy.” She noted seeing the huge number and diversity of people at COP working to make change was really impactful for her. 

Collins now studies climate science and physics as an undergraduate at McGill University, and is a full-time student researcher in McGill’s department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, where she’s modeling smoke particle dispersion after wildfires. She also serves on the atmospheric science program’s leadership council, and engages in regular public speaking events as a youth environmentalist and climate scientist.

Charlotte Meyer, another 2022 graduate of OPRF, credits COP for spurring her to pursue more local climate action. “I found it disheartening to see so many people from across the world gathered for such a huge event that promised so much and then delivered such little action,” she said. “Coming back home from COP reminded me that I have the strongest power at a local level, and reinforced my need to use this power.” 

She is continuing her commitment to environmental advocacy as a rising junior at Denison University, where she’s double-majoring in Environmental Studies and Data Analytics. Meyer is also a student representative on Denison’s Campus Sustainability Committee and the Net-Zero Project Leader for Denison’s student-run Green Team. She has also been meeting with members of the university’s administration and Board of Trustees to provide a student voice on their progress towards their goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2045. Last summer, Meyer was a communications intern at the Rodale Institute, an organization focused on regenerative organic agriculture. And this summer she’s interning for Denison’s Director of Sustainability.

COP27, Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, 2022

Manolo Avalos just graduated from OPRF in 2024, and was involved in IOF for most of his high school career. Aside from his activism through IOF, he also serves on the River Forest Sustainability Commission and the OPRF sustainability committee. COP opened his eyes to just how many countries around the world are working hard to fight climate change and bring new ideas to the table, especially frontline countries with vulnerable populations. He was inspired at COP by being surrounded by thousands of people with the same goal: to make the world a better place. Avalos is headed to Triton College and plans to study communications and use that skill set for environmental activism. 

Miah Ebels-Duggan graduated from Evanston Township High School in 2023. Much like fellow IOF student Charlotte Meyer, Ebels-Duggan said COP inspired a stronger commitment to the climate fight on the local level. “It reaffirmed my focus on local policy and advocacy,” they said. “I think that municipal and state governments are our best tools for climate action.” 

This was also informed by Ebels-Duggan’s takeaway that, in many ways, COP felt like a business conference, complete with conference rooms sponsored by the likes of Shell and BP. “My biggest takeaway was the misalignment between geopolitics/globalized markets and the needs of people & the planet,” they said. Ebels-Duggan is studying environmental science and public policy at Harvard University, and they serve on the boards of Harvard Undergraduates for Environmental Justice and the Harvard Undergraduate Urban Sustainability Lab. They are working at the City of Evanston’s Sustainability and Resilience Department this summer. 

Victoria Evans is a 2023 graduate of OPRF. Like Ebels-Duggan, her takeaway from COP27 was mixed. “It was painfully obvious to me at COP27 that the merits of reducing climate change are not important to those in power as much as I hoped,” she said. Yet, she found hope in the passion of the thousands of activists from around the world. “Overall, while COP27 made me a tad more pessimistic about the state of climate affairs, it opened my eyes to the reality of climate solutions and how thousands of people globally are immensely passionate about getting the voice of the public out to promote change,” she said. 

For Evans, COP27 helped reframe her thinking about how she wants to be involved in environmental issues. The heavy emphasis on the economy in the climate talks got her thinking about how business has a role in her future environmental advocacy. 

“COP was a once in a lifetime opportunity that not only completely changed my world view and promoted my passions but one that also realized my future goals and aspirations,” she said. 

“Seeing all of the successful people that made a career out of advocating for the issue they loved ignited my drive to continue forward in environmental work and try to make a difference.”

Evans is currently majoring in Environmental Science at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She has recently participated in the Institute on Environment’s Undergraduate Leadership program to work with local nonprofits, attended the 3M Environmental Justice conference, participated in the CFANS undergraduate mentorship program with her mentor who worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and made a light pollution informational campaign with the Bell Museum.

Stay tuned as we introduce the COP29 IOF delegates in the coming weeks. And be sure to follow IOF on Instagram and Facebook for the latest updates.