Inyo and Mono Students Discover Clean Energy Opportunities at Future Green Leaders Summit

Picture every student, regardless of their background, discovering the opportunities available in energy efficiency, water conservation, and clean air, and gaining real access to pursue meaningful careers in this dynamic industry. This vision became a reality for 125 middle school students from three schools within the within the Inyo and Mono Counties, empowering them to become the architects of a cleaner, and brighter future.

This past Thursday, students from Mammoth Middle School, Lo-Inyo Elementary School, and Owens Valley Elementary School (Inyo County) attended the 4th annual Future Green Leaders Summit STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) career and resource fair at the Cerro Coso Community College – Eastern Sierra College Center in Bishop, CA. Held for the first time in the Inyo and Mono Counties, the summit was presented by the Southern California Regional Energy Network (SoCalREN), County of Los Angeles.

For most students, the Future Green Leaders Summit is the first exposure to innovative clean energy technologies and exploring diverse career pathways that address issues such as energy, water conservation, air pollution, extreme heat—all aimed at reducing carbon emissions and creating a healthier and more resilient planet, starting with where they live. Since its inception in 2023 and through this year’s event, the Summit will have inspired 2,700 students.

The students started the day being greeted and entertained by AY Young, a singer-songwriter, global touring pop artist, United Nations Young Leader, and founder of Battery Tour. He used music and a clean-energy-powered performance to get young people excited for the day, and asked them to think how each one of them can become “outlets” for change by bringing their individual passions (music, science, art, sports, family, etc.) to a future career.

The morning welcome included brief remarks from Tessa Charnofsky, Special Services Assistant, Internal Service Department-Energy, Los Angeles County, followed by Bishop Councilmembers Jose Garcia and Karen Kong.

Created as a dynamic, immersive experience that would spark passion for green careers among young students, the students rotated throughout the day between interactive workshops and a resource fair of booths with hands-on activities hosted by nonprofits, government, and building and energy industry partners.

“Communities of the Future” workshop, led by multi-disciplinary artist and producer Katherine Ferweda, introduced students to the work of an urban planner and what sustainable cities of the future will need to look like. She showed them cities that already exist and they discussed what aspects of these communities make them more livable and resilient. Students then made collages, cutting out and arranging images that included energy sources, mass transit, community centers, gardens, and green roofs, that they presented and took back to their own classrooms to continue the discussion of future world building.

Setting the stage to demonstrate how different people control different narratives, filmmaker, screenwriter and storyteller Adèle Jacques started her workshop, “Local Stories, Lasting Impact: Sustainability Through Storytelling”, with a film montage of different points of view of Mono and Inyo counties region. She then guided students, working in groups, to become storytellers of their own region through observation and discussion, ultimately having them present a short story or synopsis.

The highly popular workshop, “Re-Imagine It! Future Green Design Challenge”, put middle schoolers in the role of green product inventors, combining science, drawing, and teamwork. Craig Provost, an innovation and industrial designer, let the students as they re-imagined a consumer product to create a more people and earth-friendly version…in this case, a backpack. The workshop also supported design thinking principles that inspired building on each others’ ideas, and considering how the design would affect different people, as well as the planet.

To round out the workshops, “World Builders: Imagining Our Green Future”, workshop leader Thomas Yount used the board game he invented, Climate Cooldown, to guide middle school students from climate awareness to climate agency. Rather than presenting climate change as overwhelming, this workshop reframed it as an invitation that calls for exactly the creativity and collaboration young people are uniquely positioned to offer.

Using the game’s problems/solutions cards, students selected the problems they care about most and the solutions they found most relevant — from indigenous land stewardship and composting to clean energy and water conservation. They then played a mini-game matching issues to solutions, building systems thinking skills. They also crafted a short narrative and illustrated a shared poster imagining a future where their chosen solutions are working. Finally, students identified career pathways, academic subjects, and roles they could play in making that future real.

The resource fair’s interactive tables offered information about native animal species, geothermal power, solar power, native plant restoration, help for going to college, and additional opportunities. Represented organizations included Cerro Coso Community College, ACES, GRID Alternatives, Friends of the Inyo, High Sierra Energy Foundation, Eastern Sierra Land Trust, 4H, Mammoth Lakes Foundation and COSO / Atlantica.

Said Hailey K. from Mammoth Middle School, “The thing that I liked most and that we’ve learned about before was probably renewable and non-renewable energy…last year we learned a lot about that with our old science teacher, and I think it’s a really cool subject.” Added Camilla H., from the same school, “My favorite part was when we designed our own backpacks because that was really exciting and fun, and it was a really nice opportunity to see how we could do something different.” Both students represented their school at the event as Student Media Reporters.

The classes and individual students had fun taking their picture against the giant SoCalREN backdrop that also featured giant poppy decorations, and besides lunch, they snacked on fresh carrots and apples from Blue Heron Farm. AY Young closed out the day with a high energy concert and performance, bringing students and teachers to their feet!

The location of this year’s Future Green Leaders Summit is poignant. Tourism, outdoor recreation, and public land management are the largest employment and economic sectors in Inyo and Mono counties, and opportunities are expanding for workers in climate adaptation, ecosystem management, and renewable energy. Supporting jobs in these fields is critical, as parts of Eastern California face significant socioeconomic and environmental vulnerabilities, including elevated pollution in local agricultural and transit areas (CalEnviroScreen 4.0). Declining Sierra Nevada snowpack and severe wildfire risks are also increasing local demand for resilient workforce skills (CEC, California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment). California-wide clean energy employment in 2024 reached over 551,600 workers, driven by steady growth in energy efficiency and clean technology sectors statewide (Clean Jobs California 2025).