Sophia K.

During a trip to Iran in middle school, Sophia was confronted by a night sky that was obscured by smog instead of full of stars. Reading more about the climate crisis, she realized that not only is the world heating up at an alarming pace, but there was an access issue to educational material about the climate crisis because most documents were in English. After seeing the effect that a few translated documents had on her friends and family in Iran, Sophia decided that she had to take further action. She began Climate Cardinals, a global youth-led organization that works to bring climate education to those who don’t speak English. Climate Cardinals has grown from a "ragtag group of teenagers that congregated through social media” to more than 8,000 student volunteers who translate hundreds of thousands of words into hundreds of languages to promote better access to the majority of the world's population who do not speak English.