If you could share one message of hope for your community, what would it be? Briefly explain why you would choose this message.
" We are never truly stuck with the environmental challenges we face today; we are simply waiting for the next scientific breakthrough." This is my message because in my research on radon and kinetic energy harvesting, I ' ve seen how solutions like turning wasted vibrations into power can help solve a massive, toxic problem like the battery crisis, and for every problem, there is a solution that we can work on or uncover.
When thinking about climate change, it is easy to feel defeated. To feel as though the world is a lost cause. It is not. Hope isn ' t just faith in something working out; it is meaningful effort for change, whether in a lab, classroom, or even at home we can do something to ensure our Earth ' s future is self‐sustaining. By combining our ingenuity with action, we can prove that a brighter, cleaner world is possible.
Who or what inspires you to work on climate change?
I live in a small community in rural southern Manitoba, where the effects of climate change are hard to ignore. Every summer, I ' ve seen the fields dry up due to droughts, and every winter, the snow arrives later and later. It ' s scary to see these changes happening around me, but it ' s also motivated me to take action. I want to give back to the land that has given so much to us, and that ' s truly what drives my passion for climate work. It all started with science fairs, but it ' s the personal experiences that really drive me to make a difference.
I used to worry a lot but then I realized that wasn ' t going to solve anything. So, I started using science fairs as a way to turn my worries into something useful. For example, my last year ' s science fair project was on researching radon levels in soil. Compared to this year where I ' ve been working on a project to reduce the number of toxic batteries we use in infrastructure.
I ' m lucky to have such a supportive and inspiring community, family, and friends who inspire me to keep working on solutions to big problems that we face.
Source: https:// www. nationalycaa. org / 2026‐winners / amy‐clark ###