Eyes of the Future from Bioneers on Vimeo.
The young are prime movers of social change. They are leaders in innovation. It’s crucial to build collaborations and cultivate their leadership as they take a stand for an ecologically sustainable and socially just civilization.
In 2000, the environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill attended the Bioneers conference and pledged to help organize a Bioneers Youth Leadership Program. It has grown into a dynamic three-day experience of skill sharing, leadership development, networking, and project collaborations with youth from all over the country. Ever since, an increasing number of youth are attending the conference – and many more are seeking financial assistance to do so.
“Eyes of the Future: Youth Speak” is a video project of Finding the Good Traveling Semester Program.* Young people from all walks of life speak directly on mentorship, on Bioneers, and most profoundly on their vision for creating a livable, thriving future.
We can’t imagine not having these and other youth as part of the Bioneers community, and thanks to the generosity of donors who supported the John Mohawk Scholarship Fund, it was possible to provide these future leaders and change-makers scholarships to attend the conference.
And we want to do that again this year – but we can’t do it alone. We need your help.
The volume of requests for conference scholarships is skyrocketing, coming from young people of all backgrounds – Indigenous people, people of color, young and low-income women leaders and dazzling community-based change-makers. Every year, Bioneers commits to maximizing the number of these Youth conference scholarships, whatever it takes.
We hope you’ll join us this year in raising $25,000 to support conference scholarships. We have to raise these funds by September 30th in order to provide scholarships to these remarkable young and emerging leaders.
Bioneers’ youth are an inspiration to bioneers everywhere, and they are proving David Brower right every day as they work tirelessly and collaboratively to create the future they want to live in.
We sincerely hope that you see funding the John Mohawk Bioneers Conference Scholarship Fund as a catalytic step in cultivating the next generation of visionary leaders acting on behalf of the common good.
Please give what you can and give generously. Future generations are counting on us.
************
2012 Conference Youth scholarships enable youth to engage for the full three days in skill sharing, leadership development, networking, and project collaborations with other youth from across the country. Highlights this year include talks from Brower Youth Award winners, Rhiannon Tomtishen, Madison Vorva, De’Anthony Jones and Rachel Barge. Also, youth will have the opportunity to participate in 12 interactive panels, workshops, campaign connections and special events, including a panel on green jobs, an interactive workshop on eco-apartheid, a collective art mural, and a slam poetry contest, just to name a few!
Learn more about youth programming at this year’s conference to see what a difference your gift today will make in the lives of young change-makers from around the country (link to the Youth Track page).
************
*Tom and Debra Weistar, Founder-Directors of Finding the Good, have brought youth media programming, including the mobile media classroom, to Bioneers since 2009. Finding the Good (Nevada City, CA) is a high school and gap year program based on studying and documenting models of sustainability.
