For 25 years, voices of young visionaries and leaders at Bioneers have called for change, inspired us with stories, and kept our focus on future horizons. The passion and perspective that only youth can bring have not only energized Bioneers over the years but have also helped shape the conference into what it is today. To honor and celebrate these 25 years of youth participation at Bioneers, we are passing the mic to some of today’s most dynamic young movement leaders driving change in their communities. Come join the Bioneers Youth Programs for our “conference within a conference.” Moderated by Britt Gondolfi and Kuliamai Aveiro Kalaniopio.

Waileia Uluwehi Kainoa Haili-Barawis & Chazlyn Mukini, Malama Aina Compostables
Malama Aina Compostables- Recycle Hawai’i & Ka’ū Global Learning Lab
This presentation aims to illuminate the often-overlooked struggles that accompany the idealized notion of “paradise.” We will discuss the consequences of land being appropriated for factories and developments that pose a threat to our environment. Central to this discussion are the powerful voices of the youth from Kaū, who demonstrate the monumental impact of collective action. By sharing their stories, we aspire to raise awareness about the critical issues at stake—our homes, our land, and the futures of generations to come. Together, we will engage the audience in recognizing the importance of solidarity in advocating for meaningful change and protection of our environment.“

Jeremiah Magallones & Khiara Kaleiwahea, Hanai Kai Ulu
We Are the System: Indigenous Youth Reimagining Regeneration
What happens when young people are trusted not only to participate in sustainability efforts but also to design and lead them? In this presentation, Jeremiah shares his journey as a young systems builder and offers a practical framework for educators, organizers, and innovators looking to empower youth leadership in climate solutions. Participants will explore how culturally grounded systems design can simultaneously address environmental justice, food security, and workforce development, while also fostering purpose, belonging, and intergenerational connections. This presentation invites audiences to move beyond mere youth engagement toward genuine youth governance and regenerative leadership.

Jasmine Smith, Eastern Band Of Cherokee Indians
Future Matriarchs – The NAIWA Daughters Initiative
This presentation addresses the environmental and social challenges faced by tribal communities, highlighting threats to waterways, habitat loss, and cultural disconnection among the youth. With alarming rates of mental health issues and technology addiction, it is crucial to empower younger generations to preserve their heritage. The solution proposed is the establishment of NAIWA Daughter chapters across Turtle Island, aimed at nurturing a network of young Indigenous women as compassionate leaders. The mission emphasizes leadership development, cultural enrichment, and community service through four priority projects: Rights of Nature, Softball for Sovereignty, Aun” Tea” Time, and SHE-yo.  Success has been measured through community engagement in the Rights of Nature project, promoting environmental stewardship and educating community members on critical issues. These initiatives also foster cultural reconnection, empower female athletes, and facilitate intergenerational knowledge sharing. By actively engaging with tribal leaders and the community, they are promoting cultural learning and working to incorporate traditional teachings into policy, moving forward with purpose.

Anvi Sharma
Moss is Magic
This project explores the potential of moss as a sustainable urban infrastructure solution in California, emphasizing its ability to absorb water and reduce heat. Inspired by a personal fascination with moss, extensive research revealed its impressive properties, such as certain species’ capacity to absorb up to twenty times their weight in water and lower surface temperatures by 10 to 15 degrees. Modular moss walls in Europe have shown reductions in particulate pollution by up to 30%. This initiative aims to implement moss in schools, sidewalks, and public spaces, addressing urban heat islands and enhancing air quality. The project aligns with California’s existing environmental programs, offering a realistic path for community-focused implementation. Moss may be small, but its impact could be substantial.

Charlie Van Schaick
Land & Legacy Initiative
Charlie Van Schaick is a high school junior from Chappaqua, New York, who is passionate about engaging young people in ecological and community wellbeing through Bioneers’ approach. Her work centers on raising awareness of local land, particularly Buttonhook Forest, a culturally and ecologically significant area that many students are unaware of. She is developing a student-centered initiative that emphasizes education over mere exposure, aiming to illustrate the history and significance of local land. This initiative includes creating learning spaces, organizing gatherings, and inviting speakers, especially Indigenous voices, to discuss stewardship’s relational and reciprocal aspects. Charlie believes that when young people perceive land as living and meaningful, their behaviors shift from abstract notions of stewardship to personal care. By fostering a generation that cares for land through understanding and respect, she hopes to cultivate a deeper relationship between youth and their environment, guided by Indigenous stewardship principles.

Esther
Native American Running Tradition: Movement, Identity, and Youth Leadership
For many Native Nations, running has never been just a sport. It is a cultural practice rooted in ceremony, communication, healing, and relationship to land. Today, Indigenous youth continue this tradition in contemporary spaces, using running as a pathway to holistic wellness, leadership development, and cultural continuity. As the Child & Youth Program Coordinator at Wings of America, a Native-led nonprofit with more than 35 years of history, I work directly with Indigenous youth across the Southwest and beyond. Wings was founded to protect and promote Native running traditions while creating equitable access to athletic and leadership opportunities. Through community-based running and wellness programs, youth are supported not only as athletes, but as whole people—mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Because running is a land-based activity, it naturally fosters respect for place, ancestral knowledge, and environmental responsibility. Youth participants build strength and endurance while also reconnecting to cultural identity and community values. Through mentorship, leadership development, and culturally grounded practices such as breath work, grounding, reflection, and honoring individual spiritual traditions, Wings runners grow into role models and advocates for their communities. This presentation will highlight how Indigenous youth are reclaiming movement as both resilience and resistance. It will share how running supports identity formation, confidence, and leadership, while also nurturing future protectors of culture and land. By centering Indigenous knowledge systems and youth voices, this work demonstrates that solutions to today’s challenges already exist within Native communities.

Gabriel Barnett and Marlett Hernandez-Fitch
Bayou Youth Leaders
Gabriel Barnett and Marlett Hernandez-Fitch of the Bayou Youth Leadership Project will present on the initiatives of their newly formed Indigenous and youth-led organization. This session will focus on the critical role of cultural connection and ancestral practices in cultivating youth spaces that advance environmental and social justice. By taking proactive steps to unite young individuals, we can prevent the loss of vital knowledge and traditions. This presentation aims to inspire participants to rediscover and share teachings that honor Mother Earth and all living beings. Attendees will be encouraged to engage in community-building and address important yet challenging topics, all while fostering an atmosphere of enjoyment. Through integrating traditional knowledge and community engagement, youth can recognize their potential as catalysts for change.

Xa’-tle T’sing Lincoln, Native Health in Native Hands
Native Health in Native hands empowers youth to become active leaders in cultural restoration by engaging with traditional ecological knowledge from elders and mentors. Through hands-on activities such as canoe building and harvesting plants, youth learn to care for our land and waters while deepening their connections to family, community, and their personal narratives. Their efforts to restore the Eel River and practice sustainable stewardship are crucial not just for today but for future generations. By participating in workshops and community gatherings, they gain a voice in cultural engagement, asking questions and sharing experiences with other youth. Ultimately, they strive to affirm that our traditions are vibrant and alive, as they work to protect their lands, revitalize language, and foster a strong sense of cultural identity.

Stella Bongiorno, Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature
Raised in Western Europe within a worldview that framed nature as a resource to manage, extract, and control, Stella Bongiorno came to question the systems that separate humans from the living Earth. As climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, and social instability intensify, she argues these crises are not isolated but symptoms of a deeper cultural logic rooted in separation from nature. Drawing on Indigenous worldviews that understand rivers, forests, and oceans as living relatives, Stella explores the growing global movement for the Rights of Nature, which seeks to recognize ecosystems as rights-bearing entities with the legal standing to exist, regenerate, and thrive. Through her work with the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, she helps advance Earth-centered law, governance, and cultural transformation. Her talk invites audiences to reimagine humanity’s relationship with the planet—moving from extraction to reciprocity—and highlights the role of young people in transforming Western legal and cultural systems toward a more regenerative future.

Stella Bongiorno is the European Hub Coordinator for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, where she works to strengthen networks of youth leaders, lawyers, researchers, and advocates advancing the Rights of Nature movement across Europe. Her work focuses on promoting legal recognition for ecosystems—particularly water bodies—while supporting cultural and educational initiatives that reconnect Western societies with relational worldviews about the Earth. After completing her studies in Europe, Stella moved to Ecuador, where she encountered the Rights of Nature not only as a legal concept but as a lived practice embedded in community relationships with land and water. This experience shaped her commitment to advancing Earth-centered law and governance globally. She now works at the intersection of youth leadership, legal innovation, and cultural change to help reimagine humanity’s relationship with the living world.

Rojelin Capueta, Zero Waste Youth Advocate/ Recycle Hawai`i/ Ka`u Global Learning Lab.  Aloha, I’m Rojelin Capueta, and I’m part of the REO program Public Relations team. I joined Malama Aina Compostables because I care and want to see the environment, the people, and the animals not just flourish, but thrive. Joining this program has given me so many opportunities to implement zero-waste practices to help my community and those around me. It has also allowed me to connect with dedicated and passionate people who share the vision of a sustainable future for Hawai’i. My skills are hardworking, adaptability, teamwork, and organization.

Roxie Castaneda , Zero Waste Youth Advocate/ Recycle Hawai`i/ Ka`u Global Learning Lab. Aloha, my name is Roxie Castaneda. I joined this program because I was looking for an experience in the career world but as I got more in depth with the program, I felt a moral obligation to reduce waste’s impact on the environment. I started to feel more motivated after witnessing the environmental damage firsthand such as seeing plastic pollution in oceans, parks and more. Experiences such as these inspired me to make a change and take action with this program. I also wanted to take action for my community as this program makes me feel a sense of belonging and having a shared purpose in this world. In my program, I work on the operations team, which includes more hands-on work, as well as, managing data and tracking the program’s progress. 

Ahlyna Flores, Zero Waste Youth Advocate/ Recycle Hawai`i/ Ka`u Global Learning Lab. Waileia Uluwehi Kainoa Haili-Barawis, Zero Waste Youth Advocate/ Recycle Hawai`i/ Ka`u Global Learning Lab.  Aloha, my name is Waileia Uluwehi Kainoa Haili-Barawis. I am a senior of Kau High and Pahala Elementary, I am a student athlete and a zero-waste youth advocate of malama aina compostables REO program. I have been in this program for almost 2 years, serving on the public relations team. I joined this program because I realized how terrible a place can get if not cared for. Seeing how other environments can harm the people that live there makes me have a strong urge to push through and make a change. It inspired me to stand up and say what needs to be said no matter if i come from a small town i will make a difference. I believe in One voice One mind One aina we can do whatever we put our minds too you just have to take the first step.

Jeremiah Magallones is a youth leader from Waiʻanae, Hawaiʻi who helped transform a simple school recycling effort into a thriving community-powered circular economy system. Through Community Cardboard Shred Days, youth exchange community cardboard for fresh produce, diverting thousands of pounds of waste from landfills while strengthening food security, farmer partnerships, youth employment pathways, and cultural stewardship of the land. Rooted in the Hawaiian principle of “hoʻihoʻi ʻāina i ka ʻāina” (returning land back to land), this model regenerates soil, nourishes communities, and builds leadership capacity in young people who are often excluded from decision-making spaces. Youth operate shredders, manage logistics, lead community workshops, and build small enterprises using compostable products created from diverted cardboard.

Chazlyn Mukini , Zero Waste Youth Advocate/ Recycle Hawai`i/ Ka`u Global Learning Lab.  Aloha, My name is Chazlyn Mukini. I’m a senior at Kau High and Pahala Elementary School. I’m a part of the marketing and public relations teams. Coming from a small town and school we don’t usually get opportunities like these to help us get out of our comfort zone and prepare us for the ‘real world’. Being a part of this program has made a huge impact on my life. I’ve gained first hand experience working a part-time job as a high school student, deepening my understanding on zero waste and how proper waste management is important for the world, especially Hawaii, and helped me step out of my comfort zone and learn how to manage my time.

Jasmine Smith, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, is the founder and Chair of NAIWA Daughters, a youth-led nonprofit dedicated to empowering Indigenous young women in activism, leadership, and community engagement. Grounded in her cultural heritage and lived experience, Jasmine leads NAIWA Daughters in amplifying Indigenous voices and addressing racial and social injustices. Through her leadership, the organization has reached local, regional, national, and international platforms, advancing conversations around equity, inclusion, and Indigenous representation.

Aloha mai kakou, O Khiara Kaleiwahea Ko’u Inoa

I am a senior at Nanakuli High and Intermediate School on the island of Oahu and am also a Youth Lead within the non-profit organization, ‘Hanai Kaiaulu’. I am a passionate advocate for the environment and a follower of Jesus Christ. In Hanai Kaiaulu, I am given opportunities to teach others in my generation about the environment and how we repurpose and shred cardboard for our land’s benefit. With all the work I do in Hanai Kaiaulu, I am happy to say that I am part of the change that Hawaii so deeply needs. During my spare time, I enjoy volunteering in my community, painting, spending time with God and friends, and striving for the betterment of my home. My ultimate goals in life are to travel the world, own land with my own little farm, and be a faithful servant of God.