These in-their-own-words pieces are told to Patricia Lane and co-edited with input from the interviewee for the purpose of brevity.

Melody Silva doesn’t give up. This 18-year-old from British Columbia’s Saltspring Island began pressing her school in Grade 10 to provide plastic recycling and composting. To her frustration and despite a strong economic argument and widespread student and community support, the school board remains mostly intransigent. Melody is off to university this fall, but she has made sure younger students are trained and still on the case.

Tell us about your project.

In Grade 10, I easily persuaded the student council to ask the school authorities to implement school-wide composting and hard and soft plastic recycling. Nothing happened. I felt a bit lost.

I volunteered with Transition Salt Spring, and one of my mentors suggested I apply for grant funding to try again. At the start of Grade 12, I got funding for the school’s Earth Club to do a school-wide trial, audit the results, develop recommendations and train other students in climate advocacy.

We engaged 20 students in workshops led by climate activist Fig Mulder. During these workshops, we developed the........

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