Become a Student Organizer

Earth Day Student Organizers are our on-the-ground environmental leaders.

Student activists have been and will continue to be crucial protectors of our planet. MobilizeU recognizes their power, creativity and organizing capacity. University students have the power to ignite change on their campuses—and worldwide.

Students, are you up for the challenge? MobilizeU Student Organizers are the driving forces to activate student bodies on campuses across the world. Whether this is your first time organizing on campus or are already heavily involved, joining MobilizeU will help you amplify your environmental impact. As an organizer for your campus, you can create a difference though the following avenues:

• Bring the power of Earth Day to your college year-round, connecting your campus to the global environmental movement
• Create a strong, influential #VoteEarth campaign to educate your peers about their role in the coming elections across the globe
• Take advantage of MobilizeU guidance and resources to improve sustainability on your campus
• Get valuable resume experience in campaign organizing

Jess Mihalczo, Temple University ’20

Co-founder of Earth Day 50 Years Jess Mihalczo is a senior at Temple University majoring in advertising. She has experience in digital marketing, media planning, graphic design, and social media marketing. Jess was inspired to create Earth Day: 50 Years In The Making after she and Kerry Shanahan traveled to Arcosanti, AZ and learned all about sustainable living on a macro-scale. Moving forward, Jess hopes to pursue a career that marries her skills in advertising and communications with her passion for sustainability and humanitarianism. In her free time, Jess loves going hiking with her two golden retrievers Jack and Jill, playing video games, and supporting local music in Philadelphia.  

“We are all part of a greater living system. The Earth in itself is a living organism that over billions of years has grown and changed, much like we experience in our own lives, and it is our duty to treat it with respect.”

— JESS MIHALCZO

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Aishwarya Sinha, University of Delhi '20
Aishwarya is a final year Post-Graduate student in the Department of Social Work. She is currently pursuing her Master of Arts (MA) in Social Work . Having lived her life in Faridabad (Haryana, India), which has been ranked as one of the Top Six Most polluted cities in the world, she has become more concerned about the Hazardous Air that the residents are breathing. Air Pollution masks have become an inevitable part of their routine.
Heading close to the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, she believes that now is the time to act!

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Ugyen Lhamo, Royal University of Bhutan 22'

I am a final year student pursuing my bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering at the College of Science and Technology in Bhutan. I enjoy and love going hiking in the woods and mountains. My interest in environmentalism has led me to do a lot of volunteering work such as tree plantation and voluntary trash picking in schools. I am an active member of our college Environmental club, Y-Peer (Youth Peer) and Bhutan Toilet Organization club. As a member of these clubs, we hold clean up events on the college campus, advocate fellow students for gender equality and on the importance of mental health awareness. We even help maintain the cleanliness of toilets advocating for health and hygiene. On EarthDay 2020 we are raising awareness on the needed “Climate Action!” On this day, I look forward to bringing the global world together and reminding each one of us on our sole responsibility to protect our natural world.

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The Duke University Undergraduate Environmental Union (UEU) serves as an advisory organization to a dozen environmental student groups at Duke and acts as a liaison between different administrative offices, faculty, and the student body. Founded in 2017 by John Desan, it is situated within Duke Student Government under the authority of the Director of Environmental Affairs. The UEU seeks to support environmental undergraduate groups with their own projects and missions, foster collaboration among student organizations, facilitate partnerships with academic and administrative offices to accomplish major projects, serve as a communal place for groups to share support and information to existing groups and projects, and create a unified student voice to advance and publicize environmental issues on Duke’s campus.

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Puran Gurung, Sherubtse College

I am the President of Sherubtse United Nations Club in Bhutan. I am also a Peer Educator/ Social Worker/ Youth Volunteer/ Blogger and Writer. I came across many youths and adults in my region when I advocated on climate change and global social problems. I believe that the mind of young people can develop for positive changes to save our earth. I also believe everyone can play a role in restoring our planet. I hope my work makes a difference inspiring young people to use their unique skills to do whatever they can do to protect our mother earth.

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Kerry Shanahan, Temple University ’21

Co-founder of Earth Day 50 Years Kerry Shanahan is a junior at Temple University majoring in Media Studies & Production and minoring in Environmental Studies. She’s interested in documentary filmmaking and activist media. In her spare time, Kerry enjoys spending time with her friends, attending sporting events, and traveling. Much like Jess, Kerry was inspired to create Earth Day: 50 Years in the Making by her time in Arcosanti, AZ. Seeing sustainable alternatives to everyday ways of living has inspired her even further to bring light to these practices. In the future, Kerry hopes to pursue a career as a media coordinator for environmental organizations.

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Alisha Davidson, University of Southampton, UK

I care about climate change for many reasons but, simply, I believe everyone around the world (currently and those to come) deserve to have a happy and fulfilled life. This means living to a decent age without watching the destruction of all the beautiful things on Earth.

There are many ways to get involved with taking climate action and I think a great one is spreading the word through art. My passions include fictitious writing, cheerleading and looking after the little ones of my friends and family. All of these, I believe, can be described as arts. The imagination and resilience each one requires is similar to what is required to win the battle on climate change.

Through blogs, social networking and working with societies on my university campus, I hope to spread knowledge, learn more myself and together, make a change.

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Sam Legebokow, University of Northern British Columbia ’21

My name is Sam Legebokow and I am in my third year of Wildlife and Fisheries Management at the University of Northern British Columbia. I am the 2019-2020 president of the student-led organization Students for a Green University. We are the dominate environmental activist group on campus, with initiatives such as the Borrow-A-Mug program which reduces disposable cup waste on campus by allowing people to borrow donated mugs. We are also in the middle of our Divest UNBC campaign, urging our university to remove their investments from fossil fuel industries and reinvest in green energy initiatives. Our goal is to facilitate student-led projects and initiatives to make UNBC more sustainable, as well as educate our student body on climate change and sustainable practices.

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Emily Burke, Creighton University ’21

I am a junior and one of many leaders of the Creighton Climate Movement. This movement has three goals for our university: a sooner carbon neutrality date, divestment of endowment funds from direct-extraction fossil fuel companies, and a mandatory climate change education requirement for all students. I was one of four authors of our student government referendum for divestment that passed with an 85.8% majority in support.

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Ariel Levin-Antila , Dickinson College 21′
Majors: Psychology & Environmental Studies

I have always been fascinated by the relationship between people and place–how and why people interact with the environment in certain ways. My passion for environmental justice, behavioral science, and social change has led me to educate myself on how to get people more involved with the environmental movement. I hope to incorporate social science theories into climate change mitigation initiatives so that individuals and groups will take ownership of our climate.

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Vaishali Phippin
2^nd year BSc (Hons) Environmental Management & Sustainability, Plymouth University

I joined this course as it is the best one that catered to my interests and ambitions of finding ways to preserve and save the environment.

Being on the committee for Environmental Society it gives us the opportunity to organize and volunteer at various events like litter picks, Beach cleans, nurdle hunting, beach surveys, crab surveys, tree planting, butterfly & bees survey. We work with various local organisations all working toward a common goal of improving the environment.

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Julio Olivarez, Wilmington College '21

My involvement with the environment began at a young age with many trips to local park from which I developed an appreciation for the natural world around us. My first year of college I was one of the founding members of my school’s Ecology Club, that has set out with a mission to promote environmental awareness and work on projects in our local area that include trash pickups at local city parks and removal of invasive species from our schools arboretum. This coming year, I will be working for my school’s service and leader executive board as the chair for environment and sustainability and through this position I hope to further promote environmentalism through larger projects. Through my efforts I hope to draw closer with the community around me so that we can all work towards creating a brighter future for our world and our home.

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Hannah Morse, University of California at Santa Barbara 20′

Hannah Morse is a rising senior at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she is pursuing a double major in environmental science and economics. Although she has lived in California her whole life, Hannah loves traveling, recently spending a year abroad in Madrid, Spain, and Berlin, Germany. Her lifelong interest in the environment has fuelled her involvement with volunteer events for planting trees or nature cleanups. She has also recently attended numerous climate marches in hopes that necessary environmental legislation will be passed worldwide.

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Evan Lutz 

Evan Lutz is an ambassador for Earth Day Network’s Foodprints for the Future Campaign. Foodprints ambassadors are leading the way to the much-needed progress within food and climate change.

“Not only is food waste a moral and economic travesty, it is one of the largest threats to the environment today. The time for watching and waiting for further evidence is over. We need to reframe the way we think about our food…

“While the problems we face are systemic, they are also surmountable. As individuals, we can make a difference by observing our food choices and incorporating simple sustainable practices into our lives.”

— EVAN LUTZ

Evan is the founder and CEO of Hungry Harvest, a food delivery company working to eliminate food wast and stop hunger. His recent article “Fixing the Food System” details many of the problems in our current food system and how this motivates him in his work.

You can read the full article here.

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Kayla East, Virginia Tech University

Kayla East is an organizer for Earth Day Network’s MobilizeU program. She is currently abroad in Botswana studying wildlife conservation through the Virginia Tech University.

Her blog “Lifting of the Elephant Hunting Ban in Botswana” offers a fresh perspective on the recent controversial move by the Botswana government to lift the ban on elephant hunting.

“After our first month working at the conservation center we got news of the elephant hunting ban lift, which caused quite a commotion not only locally, but worldwide.

The first thing I noted when it came to this legal action was the duality of opinions between those in Botswana, and the people in other nations.”

— KAYLA EAST

“Yes, elephants are a symbolic creature of Botswana, and the entire continent of Africa; but they are also seen as an encroachment on human safety, crops, and other landscapes.”

“One cannot even begin to understand the day to day fear that the locals of Botswana endure here due to the ever-growing population of elephants.”

You can read the full article here.