About the Green Team

Hi, my name is Marissa Reaves! I am a rising senior at Chaparral High School in Arizona.

Over this past year I have been working to create an interactive, online children's book on climate change called The Green Team Kids to fill in the gaps of information missed by formal education so that our generation can become part of the solution.

My website has an adaptable format that is both engaging for young people and evolves alongside the latest circumstances and scientific advances in environmentalism.

Importance of Climate Education

In March of 2019, the UN’s General Assembly announced that only eleven years remain to limit climate change’s catastrophic repercussions.

Yet, my schooling has lacked any education on climate change. My research indicates that my experience is not unusual. According to a 2019 NPR study, 86% of teachers agree that climate change should be taught, but only 42% of teachers actually do so. The young generation will be forced to face these imminent consequences, so avoiding this crucial topic will paralyze any progress. 

Project Development

This past summer I taught about practicing sustainability at home at my local desert botanical garden’s youth camp. Despite my initial hesitation about whether this topic was too comprehensible for them, their enthusiasm made it clear—young people do care about the earth we are inheriting, and when given the proper resources, passion leads to action. 

I continued to volunteer with several community organizations, educating myself on environmentalism and increasing my self-awareness through more sustainable everyday habits. I soon realized that this critical information must also be made readily available to all youth worldwide, which is what inspired me to create The Green Team Kids.

Other Environmental Projects

Besides The Green Team Kids, I have worked on several other environmental projects. These opportunities have served as my most meaningful activities. Through hands-on volunteerism, I cemented my passion for environmentalism and began to conceptualize my educational and professional goals as a sustainability advocate. My previous projects include:

• Summer 2018: Volunteered abroad in Fiji, planting mangrove trees and learning how they help erosion, function as a nursery for marine life, and support threatened endangered species

• Summer 2019: Researched the growing decline of Staghorn coral and studied the resulting ramifications if climate change were to eradicate the species. 

• 2019: Volunteering with the teen group at my local Desert Botanical Garden; participate in meetings, learn about and facilitate projects, serve as a youth educator

I am also proud to be a 2020 Fellow at HERlead, an organization that trains and mentors the next generation of female leaders! You can view my bio here.