Jensen Coonradt

Oswego East High School, Oswego, Illinois

PRESENTATION SUMMARY

A junior attending Oswego East High School, Jensen hopes to fight climate change in their Illinois community. Jensen has been a lifelong environmentalist, participating in cleanups, promoting recycling, and joining school ecology teams. Jensen is also President of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) group they founded and the leader of the school’s political action club. Before Project Green Challenge, Jensen never realized how their passions for environmentalism, STEM, and politics could align to expand impact. Thanks to Project Green Challenge, Jensen has worked with elected officials and environmental organizations to create change in the community. Jensen is currently working with the Sierra Club to implement recycling at school and organized events like a guest speaker from the Green Party to discuss environmental activism with students. Jensen is also working with the STEM competition group to create inventions to help the environment, including developing an intelligent recycling bin that awards students points for recycling to receive rewards. This will encourage students to recycle when the bins are implemented in the cafeteria.

Five words that describe PGC: Inspirational, Impactful, Visionary, Innovative, Learning.