Environmental Stewards, the Next Generation
We are proud to share their stories, lessons and impact.
Something amazing happened this past August. We had the chance to reconnect with some of the graduates from Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper’s Young Environmental Leaders Program (YELP).
It was so rewarding seeing many of the students we instructed, now in college, job training or the workforce, reflect with such positivity on their time spent in YELP. It reinforced that this program, just a drip in their lives, created a ripple of impact and action in their future.
YELP is life-changing for so many of the young people who complete it each year. By sharing hands-on experiences to learn the science behind our environmental challenges as well as the impact of community action, we empower students to do something about it. We also strive to expose students to fun recreational spaces and activities.
These students are our next generation of environmental stewards. Please consider making a donation because with your support, YELP will continue inspiring students to help build a brighter future for us in WNY.
YELP's Story
The Young Environmental Leaders Program (YELP) is an immersive place-based education and mentoring program for high school students residing in environmental justice communities. This program provides an opportunity for students interested in the STEM fields to earn college credits while gaining a heightened understanding of environmental principles while exploring local environmental issues.
At the heart of this program, we strive to cultivate environmental leaders who will inspire social change and fight for environmental justice. Students learn from local environmental experts and activists who provide career connections and showcase the impact of community action.
Upon completion of YELP, students will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to become active participants and environmental leaders in their local community.
“YELP brought me to nature and healed me without me even knowing it.”
Amani Al-Karkhi arrived in Buffalo with her family, a teen who had known little except war. She barely remembers life in her homeland of Iraq before her family fled the bloodshed there for Syria. Then Syria, too, became a place of ash and fire, of filthy water. The nearest river was a terrifying hub for murder. In Buffalo, she had plenty of things on her mind while adjusting to an entirely new life.
She hardly expected that YELP, which she joined at Lafayette High School because of the promise of group outings and college credits, would have a transformative impact beyond school.
“I could go on the water, and listen to the birds chirping, and it’s silencing everything else in my head.”
YELP sent her onto trails at Tifft Nature Preserve and put her on a kayak on the Buffalo River. Planting trees and studying flowers, focusing on their scent and feel, helped relieve her anxiety.
Before Waterkeeper, she said her response to hard childhood memories was “to live in my imagination.” The program offered her stewardship of beauty as a way back. It taught her how Buffalo exists because of waterways that remain intertwined with the city – and why it is an act of community to protect them.
“I learned to love this place and not just adapt again.”
“To be able to know this place, to really know it, it was like winning.”
For Owen Niyobuhungiro, YELP was not simply another high school program.
Owen, his siblings, and his mother fled their home in Burundi after his father, a pediatrician, was murdered for treating a student who had protested against government policies. The fear and violence of his childhood overwhelmed any memories of beauty, and his central concern was “my mother crying, because she was afraid she could not care for all of us.”
YELP opened his eyes after a hard journey and provided some peace. While Owen already aspired to become a physician like his father, YELP changed his perception of Buffalo from another place where he will stay for an uncertain length of time into a city that he loves. It is now home.
He does not love all that January and February snow, but he appreciates how it provides its reward in the lush green bloom of spring. Coming from a place where food and water were always at risk, Owen remains stunned by what is casually available in our region – and by the urgency of protecting it.
“The fresh air. The trees. It’s beautiful.”
*Adapted from Kirst, S. (2023, August 20). Program Gives Young People the Healing Gift of Nature. The Buffalo News.
