This February, UVM student Gina Fiorile was one of eight Americans honored at the White House for their extraordinary work to enhance climate education and literacy across the country. It seemed a once-in-a-lifetime moment for the first-year from Saranac Lake, New York. But before even beginning her sophomore year, Fiorile has already been invited back to D.C. for another White House event aimed at improving climate education.

At the Back-to-School Climate Education Event on Thursday, Aug. 20, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy brought together students, educators and education leaders from government and non-governmental organizations, the private sector and academia to discuss science-based information about climate change. Fiorile took the stage shortly after the 9:30 a.m. start time to ask questions one-on-one with Kathryn Sullivan, leader of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, then moderate questions from the 200-person audience.

Fiorile asked Sullivan about what's motivated her to work on behalf of climate change education, how best to motivate others as well as what the most pressing climate change challenges are today. The pair discussed the need to involve all citizens, regardless of their age or background. "We each have different passions," Fiorile said. "We may not all be scientists, but somebody may like music or somebody might be an educator. We can all fit (climate change work) into our lives in some way."

Fiorile is a national student leader on climate change for her work planning the Wild Center's Adirondack Youth Climate Summit — the subject of the documentary The Resilient Ones, produced by Mountain Lake PBS and Bright Blue EcoMedia with Jon Erickson, UVM professor of ecological economics. The summit educates students and their teachers about the impact of climate change and invites attendees to create climate action plans to lower the carbon footprint of their own schools.

The concept has been chosen by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to become a national model for climate change education. In 2014, Fiorile worked to organize Vermont’s first Youth Climate Summit, held at UVM, and this summer has worked as an intern at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, New York, to establish summits in locations ranging from Detroit to Seattle and from Finland to South Africa.

Fiorile, an environmental studies major at UVM, is especially passionate about young people becoming involved in climate change action. “We’re going to be the generation most affected by climate change,” Fiorile says. “We’re not just the leaders of tomorrow, we need to be leaders today.”

"It’s people like Gina...," Sullivan shared with the audience, "that give me hope we will find ways to improve our communities, deal with the climate challenge and move forward."

Watch Fiorile's words of advice to young climate activists in this video from the White House: