Summit Wrap-Up

After months of planning and meeting, almost 100 students representing 20 high schools across Chicagoland came together for the first Youth Climate Justice Summit in our area. Similar summits have been held in other cities, but this is the first for Chicago.

Bringing a youth climate summit to our area was the second-place individual winner at the 2025 BLAST competition, proposed by Andrea R. She served as the lead student organizer for the youth planning committee, which met for four months to plan the event, sponsored by Accelerate Climate Solutions and It’s Our Future.

Global Youth Panel: Shresta, Kola, Lana (Intern 2024, BLAST 2024), Jimena (Intern 2025, BLAST 2025), Rakshita (Intern 2025, BLAST 2025)

Accelerate Climate Solutions students were critical to the success of all aspects of the summit. In addition to Andrea, former BLAST Competition participants and interns, Rakshita, Praneeth, and Jimena were youth leaders on the Programming committee. Alyssa (BLAST 2024 and BLAST internship) and Vijay (BLAST 2025) were also part of the steering committee. Accelerate Climate Solutions organized the Global Perspective panel, where students shared climate concerns from their home countries and how youth are involved in global efforts to address the climate crisis.

Students attended workshops, heard from industry professionals, and met together to create Climate Action Plans for their schools. Both informative and inspiring, the Summit included interactive visual/art installations, original music, and was run as a zero-waste conference. See photos and read more here.

Dr. Daniel Horton, Northwestern, Keynote at YCJS

In the words of Dr. Daniel Horton, a keynote speaker, "Climate change: It's Real. It's us. It's dangerous. We can make it better."