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  • Sign Up
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Youth Activists Make a Big Impact at Virtual YEA Camp

The summer of 2020 in the US will be remembered for the massive protests against racism and the continued adjustment to life during Covid 19. Hopefully, for many people, it will be remembered as the summer when they became activists.

When we at YEA Camp recognized that we would need to cancel our in-person camps, we knew we weren’t going to sit this summer out.

We wanted to create something new to support so many young people wanting help to make a bigger difference on issues related to racism and police brutality, as well as many other issues our society has been struggling with long before we ever heard the word “coronavirus.”

YEA Campers are passionate about opposing racism as well as other social justice issues like climate change, LGBTQ equality, animal rights, mental health, gun control, poverty, and other pressing needs — and we were thrilled to be able to reimagine what we do at our in-person camps to create Virtual YEA Camp to help more than 100 teens and tweens on their change-making path.
Youth activists make a difference at YEA Camp

Differences Between In-Person and Virtual YEA Camp

After more than a decade of running in-person camps, our planning team spent 2 months developing our approach to bring the best of what we do into a totally different virtual format.

YEA Camp’s curriculum is based on building knowledge about problems and solutions, skills to take effective action, confidence to believe in yourself and get out of your comfort zone, and community to know you’re supported and not alone. And that’s just what we did at Virtual YEA Camp.

While of course we love being together in-person, and there are certain things built into our regular curriculum that are tougher or impossible to do virtually, we found ways to incorporate new activities into our online program, including many we’re not normally able to do in person.

We had 4 sessions of Virtual YEA Camp. The first, World Changing 101, introduced basic ideas of privilege, 3 levels of activism we can do (individual, community, and institutional), and basics of campaigns and advocacy. In the second session, Exploring the Issues, we focused each day on a different social justice issue to learn more about it and the advocacy we can do to make a difference on that cause. Our third week, Amplifying Your Message, was all about skill-building, and we focused on improving communications skills, taught a workshop on campaign planning, and introduced campers to the basics of political organizing, grassroots advocacy, and social media activism. And finally week 4 was called Careers for Changemakers — a unique look at ways to envision a lifetime of making a difference.

We did virtual visits to 3 different animal sanctuaries, and we were able to have guest speakers that would never normally be able to make the trip to join us in the woods. We had incredible changemakers training our campers in how to make a difference, from social justice journalist Rose Aguilar of “Your Call Radio” to teen activist and youngest-ever TEDx speaker Genesis Butler; from the Institute for Humane Education’s founder Zoe Weil to Plant-Based on a Budget’s Toni Okamoto; President of the San Mateo County, CA, Board of Supervisors Warren Slocum, founder of the Embody Love Movement, Dr. Melody Moore; and so many more.

We had guest speakers who were educators, social entrepreneurs, therapists, chefs, attorneys, social workers, journalists, political organizers, and politicians — all speaking about their career paths, including the good, the bad, and the ugly.

And so many of our speakers were past campers, like Ananya Singh, Sarah Goody, and Elyanna Calle sharing about their environmental activism; Noor Aldayeh sharing about her expertise in social media, Ana Little-Sana advised campers on getting involved in politics, and Julia Clark talked us through the behind-the-scenes of how she successfully led a campaign to get the name of her high school changed from that of a confederate general to Justice High School(!).

Our starstruck campers loved our celebrity guests Daniella Monet and Daisy Fuentes, who both spoke about how they’ve used their platforms to make a bigger difference on causes they care about, how they deal with haters, and building up the courage to find your voice. We had virtual visits to animal sanctuaries; dance and yoga classes led by celebrity teachers; arts activism using Canva to create social media-ready images to share right away; and vegan cooking classes, including one with celebrity chef Eddie Garza, who taught us to make tamales — so good! And we had incredible yoga and dance instructor and choreographer SuzE Q leading classes each week.

All of Our Amazing Staff Members Were All Former Campers!

We also had incredible staff members advising and supporting our campers all the way through. Each one of our counselors — Aine Pierre, Emma Kossoy, Jocelynn Dow, Julia Clark, Liam Davis-Bosch, and Maya Diaz-Villalta — was a former camper themselves and so knew exactly the positive, inspiring, and fun vibe of our in-person camps to help replicate this experience virtually. Advisors Sarah and Miranda hugely helped campers with their CTW challenges and action plans, and Chef Miranda taught us her amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe. Assistant director Andina Aste-Nieto joined us for her 7th(!) summer with us, and her presence makes every YEA Camp better.

Each member of our staff was chosen in part because they have also done a huge amount of activism themselves, especially for their young age. All recent high school graduates or college students, members of our amazing staff have lobbied their Congressional officials, started and run community organizations, launched successful campaigns and initiatives at their schools, and much more.

Leveraging Virtual Format to Make a Bigger Difference

One unique difference between Virtual YEA Camp and our in-person camp was access to technology. Normally we have spotty wifi, a no cell phone policy to keep everyone present and free of distractions, and no computer lab or structure for everyone to have access to the Internet.

As we developed our plans for our Virtual YEA Camp and recognized we’d need to cut some things, we also realized that on the bright side we could incorporate technology in totally new ways that we never have in person to enable campers to work on activist projects together.

Matched with a staff member who has worked on their cause, and in a small group of other campers with the same Issue of Importance (IOI), each camper worked on CTW (Change the World!) projects each week.

Each small group was given assignments for the week to create a social media project to share resources or inspiration for why and how others should get involved in their cause. From reflecting on the Pillars of Support (or underlying reasons) that their issue exists to developing talking points and compiling lists of things people can do to make a difference, campers educated themselves and others about their cause. Their What Is Your Why projects also can be a source of ongoing inspiration to stay present to their passion over the long haul.

They also set group goals to do activism together each week, and then got into action throughout the day, having their small group and counselor for support along the way. Campers identified campaigns they cared about and the decision-makers who needed to be persuaded and made at least 5,533 advocacy calls, emails, and texts for their causes! Whether they called federal or local legislators, multinational corporations, or small businesses in their area, campers made their views heard — requesting charges brought against killer cops, support for eco-friendly policies, vegan food options, and other changes to make our world better.

While many sent texts and emails, we especially encouraged every camper to get over their fear of making calls. Doing role plays and practice calls together,  campers got more comfortable and also discovered that most calls are really short and simple. A one-sentence “Hi, I’m calling to ask you to …” is usually met with a respectful “OK, thanks for calling. I’ll pass that along. Have a nice day” — not arguments about how much a program will cost or questions about specifics they might not have the answers to on the tip of their tongue.

Several campers who got over their fears about making their first call ended up making over 30 calls each in just a few days and plan to include this approach in their future advocacy!

Campers also registered or reminded people in their lives and community to vote in this important upcoming election. In our workshop on politics, we talked about how there are so many ways you can be involved in an election, even if you’re too young to vote.

And campers fundraised! Each small group agreed on an organization working on their IOI and set an ambitious fundraising goal for the week. Some campers were terrified to reach out to people in their life to ask for donations and were inspired to see people they didn’t expect support their fundraisers!

Everybody dealt with some level of rejection or disappointment or anxiety of doing or saying the wrong thing, which are all important parts of activism that we need to get comfortable experiencing and overcoming. Hearing “no” can be really hard, but if we aren’t willing to hear “no” about the causes we believe in and the big changes we want to make, we likely won’t be hearing “yes” either.

In addition to all these group goals and challenges, every camper developed an action plan for how they want to make a difference once camp ended. They chose a cause to focus on, a goal and proposed date to achieve it by, and developed action steps to take along the way.

Many campers, especially those who were with us for multiple sessions, got to work on their plans too.

We know of at least 3 activist-related podcasts launched during YEA Camp, this online petition (please sign!) our amazing camper Rachel created to request climate change education in NY public schools, new social media platforms to raise awareness on different causes, arts activism created to raise awareness, people who went to their first-ever protest, and so much more that we don’t even know about and that will be developed and blossoming in the weeks, months, and years to come.

We couldn’t be more proud of our campers’ accomplishments this summer, and it was such a joy to see their own pride as well!

We’ll remember campers telling us “I FINALLY MADE A CALL!” and having them share about what it took for them to develop the courage to pick up the phone, push the buttons and make the call.

We’ll remember campers’ enthusiasm and pride when they saw people contributing to the online fundraiser their group had created just the day before.

We’ll remember so many campers starting to really see for themselves that they can make a difference, that all of our actions add up, that they are not alone and have a community of people now who support them and care as much as they do about making our world a better place.

And ultimately we’ll remember that we are resilient. That it wasn’t that long ago that YEA Camp was canceled and we had no idea what we might do instead. That we were googling “virtual camp” to find out what that even was — and to then imagine and create our version of what it could be.

That’s what activists do.

And it wouldn’t have been possible without so many of you. Our campers for caring so much and YEA Camp parents for trusting us with your kids. Our incredibly committed staff who made this whole new innovative program possible. Our brilliant speakers who so much of their wisdom and expertise with us. Volunteers involved in so many levels of our work. Our donors who make all of our work possible. And to many cheerleaders who appreciate and share our work. So many of you have been supporting us on this path and helped make this amazing summer possible for us. We are so grateful for all of you!

And now we want to build on our successes from this summer and continue to reinvent what is possible for our work and organization.

Want to know what’s next for YEA Camp? So do we! We have so many ideas and would love your help deciding and prioritizing. Fill out this survey to let us know what you think! And follow us on Facebook and Instagram to keep track of what we’ve got planned next.

YEA Camp has fiscally sponsored 501(c)(3) status from Earth Island Institute. All donations are tax deductible.

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© YEA Camp

Joyce Frink

Bio coming soon

Jessa Carter

Jessa Carter is a Physician Assistant with 8 years of experience in Neurosurgery and Neurocritical care and is beyond excited to be joining YEA Camp this year for the first time as a Health Supervisor!! She is also the author of the upcoming book “It’s Time: A compassionate Guide to Understanding End of Life Care Decisions” and founder of a new start up company that will serve our communities. She feels the world of personal growth and development has dramatically enhanced her life in more ways than she can count and is grateful to give back and inspire others in this way. She is passionate about Women’s rights, Animal rights, the environment, Bullying, the LGBTQ+ community and more. She full of positive energy, love and light and loves to share it! She hopes to play an integral role in inspiring and changing the life of the kids at YEA Camp this year but is already confident they’ll forever change hers!

Jen Hung

Jen Hung is a NYC based health supportive chef, writer, and food event producer with a background in branding, production, business development, and strategy. She spends most of her time testing vegan versions of Taiwanese comfort foods in her Brooklyn kitchen.

Katerra Martin

Katerra Martin is nn animal and political activist since the days of yore, Katerra has campaigned for Democrats from California to Tennessee to Alabama to New York. She’s also worked for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Humane Society of the United States, an anti-puppy mill ballot measure in Ohio, farm animal protection Props 2 and 12 in California, and currently does restaurant outreach at The Humane League. Other highlights include a storied regional theater career, a short stint as a criminal defense attorney, and interning for Speaker Pelosi. An avid road-tripper, Katerra plans her vacations around where she can find vegan restaurants, and has been known to offer advice on such unsolicited.

Rachael Weinberg

Rachael Weinberg is a first time counselor for YEA Camp this year, and she is extremely excited to be working with YEA this summer. She is a student at Ithaca College studying Cinema Production and Art History, who is extremely passionate about media literacy and inclusive spaces for positive and socially conscious storytelling. She was a camper for the Rotary Youth Leadership Award program going into her junior year of high school. There she realized the importance of community settings for social justice.

Rachael has previously worked with Rotary as the Vice President of Pine-Richland’s Interact, SeriousFun Children’s Network, the student wide national board of Four Diamonds, as a representative of Mini-THON, Ithaca Streets Alive, as well as working with middle school children in the Ithaca area focusing on mentorship through media. Rachael was also a district organizer and volunteer coordinator for the Democratic Party in the 2016 election. Rachael is excited to learn from fellow counselors and campers, and continue to share the importance of actively challenging oppressive forces and dishonest media outlets.

Erin Hiebert

Erin Hiebert recently graduated from Northern Arizona University with a degree in Secondary Education of History and Social Studies. She intends to work with middle and high school students in a public school setting! She has spent the last few years in Arizona organizing alongside pro-public education activists in her state, most recently with Arizona Education Association around the #RedForEd movement. She has worked on various campaigns oriented toward electing candidates in Arizona who are pro-public education, disrupting the privatization of public school funding, and generating reliable sources of funding for Arizona’s public schools! Her activist core is centered around working with youth and creating equitable education for all – and she has loved every second of it! Erin has also done some moderate organizing with groups in Arizona surrounding housing justice, queer rights, immigration justice, and wage justice. She will be joining YEA Camp this summer as a counselor!

Miranda Snyder

Miranda Snyder is a first-time counselor at YEA Camp this summer. She grew up in Brimfield, Massachusetts, and began activism work in High School. During this time, Miranda presented on her personal experience to spread awareness of eating disorder prevalence in her community and formed the district’s first feminist student organization. As a current junior at the University of Maine, Miranda serves as one of two Co-Chairs of the campus’ Feminist Collective. In this position, she has led protests, campaigns, and events on campus concerning reproductive justice, sexual abuse, racism, and other issues. She has also served as the Collective’s 1 in 3 Chair, functioning as the liason between the group and the 1 in 3 campaign, which uses storytelling tactics to abolish abortion stigma. In her spare time, she enjoys theatre, singing, and reading.

Amanda Farman

Amanda Farman is a new counselor at YEA Camp this summer. Originally from Brookline, Massachusetts, Amanda has spent the past year as a farmed animal sanctuary volunteer in New Zealand and Australia. She is passionate about social justice for humans and other animals, and has been active in work surrounding gender and lgbtq+ issues, farm worker justice, immigrant rights, environmental justice and veganism. She also has experience in youth arts activist education. Amanda graduated from Wesleyan University in 2017 with a degree in Sociology and went on to intern with Food Empowerment Project (F.E.P.), a vegan food justice organization. She will be moving to Seattle in the fall and plans to resume volunteering with F.E.P. In her spare time, Amanda enjoys playing piano, biking, painting and pun-making.

Chloe Pearson

Chloe Pearson is an undergraduate student at the University of California, San Diego and is majoring in International Studies-Political Science. You can find her hiking, camping, or somewhere in the outdoors. Chloe is always ready for an adventure. You can count on her to have a great meaningful conversation or just some well needed company. She is also a type one diabetic that understands what it is like to deal with a chronic illness and can be a helping hand to anyone else struggling with a medical problem.

She has worked with Best Buddies for many years, advocating inclusion and friendship between people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and those without. She has traveled to Indiana to attend the annual Best Buddies international leadership conference to learn the best and most effective way to be an advocate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Going further, she is focusing her time on human rights issues and advocacy for those excluded globally and domestically. Sustainability and combating climate change is also something Chloe is passionate about, emphasizing low waste and reduction of single use plastics. Chloe has also been involved in Period. while attending her first year of college. Period is a student organization working to de-stigmatize mensuration as well as provide menstrual products to the homeless. Chloe is passionate about inclusion, advocacy, and human rights issues that face the globe. She believes we can be on the road to improvement once we are willing to have a conversation with humility and understanding.

Hannah Rosenberg

Hannah Rosenberg is from the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles and a current undergraduate student at the University of California, San Diego. During the school year, Hannah is a photographer for the UCSD Guardian newspaper and a member of the Sun God Archery Club. She is an advocate for animal rights and combating climate change through her food blog where she demonstrates how fun, easy, and nutritious vegan cooking can be. This year she was interviewed for a feature in the VegOut Los Angeles print magazine. She is passionate about girl empowerment through her work with the nonprofit I Am That Girl, and tackling the epidemic of homelessness through working with her sister’s nonprofit Bundles of Kindness which provides food and necessities for people on the streets of LA. Hannah’s love for the culinary arts has led her to competing in the KCRW Pie Contest at UCLA, and booking a role on Nickelodeon’s All In With Cam Newton. She has also filmed various projects for AwesomenessTV, the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Women’s Choice Awards. As well as being in front of the camera, Hannah loves filmmaking and photography, and was the recipient of the “Most Inspiring Film Award” at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Film Festival for her short documentary. Currently she is an intern for What’s Trending in Hollywood where she is a writer and editor. Hannah is also a videographer and editor for ReLyfe, a student startup geared towards combating the lack of mental health resources throughout the University of California school system. Hannah is happiest while traveling and exploring because the world is her greatest classroom. In her free time she can be found chasing waterfalls, cooking/baking for those around her, messing around with her camera, watching documentaries, 3D printing, and snuggling with her rescue dog, Lois.

Kemisa Kassa

Kemisa Kassa is from Hemet California and graduated from California State University, San Marcos with a Bachelors of Arts in Social Science. Throughout her college years she tried to stay engaged with social justice issues by attending marches, on campus events at the gender equity center/pride center. She was fortunate enough to lobby at the california capital and advocate against a tuition increase at her institution. Kemisa is connected to causes such as education, gender equality and homelessness. She’s volunteered for several organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Riverside food bank and Delaware food bank. Currently, she’s applying to law school and sees herself practicing public interest law. Kemisa wants to be a voice for those that feel powerless in our society. There needs to be more peace, love and empathy to block out all the hate in this world.

Natalie Christensen

Natalie Christensen grew up in Richmond, VA and is a new film student at Loyola Marymount University in Santa Monica. She fell in love with filmmaking her sophomore year in high school. Around the same time, after watching Cowspiracy, she made the decision to become vegan and realized her passion for animal rights. When she was a camper at YEA camp, she realized the intersectionality of this issue with many other social issues. She decided to use her filmmaking skills to help promote ideas she believed in. Her film “Monumental,” which covered the issue of Confederate Monuments, won at the Oliver White Hill Social Justice Competition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Her work has also won at the Oregon Cinema Arts Festival and was selected for the Academy Award Qualifying Indy Shorts International Film Festival. She can’t wait to continue to use art activism to teach and learn about important issues!

Anthony Pizzo

Pizzo had the privilege of growing up around people of diverse identities, which opened his mind to social issues at a young age. Due to the pressures of society and the extreme amount isms that exist, Pizzo did not discover his passion for activism until his sophomore year of college at Rutgers University where he majored in Women’s and Gender studies. This was at the same time that he decided to go vegan for various reasons, and he realized the interconnectedness of the universe as well as all social issues.Growing up listening to hip-hop, music and stories were always a way in which Pizzo learned about the world. Thus, he is a poet, using his poetry to tell his story and raise awareness about issues that he sees in society. Pizzo has done many different types of activism and worked on many different issues, including working in a middle school, various summer programs with youth, and planting trees and converting lawns to drought tolerant landscapes. Currently, Pizzo is learning about the concept of adult supremacy as well as how the systems that we currently live in are leading to the collapse of the environment and civilization as we know it. He enjoys learning about and discussing alternatives to capitalism, and believes the more we know, the more we can do. In the words of the Ashes Ashes Podcast, “the world might be broken, but it does not have to be”.

Jeri Schneider

Jeri Schneider is the head chef for YEA Camp Massachusetts. She has been vegan since 1997 and has taught vegan cooking classes for several years. She volunteers for VegMichigan and is a culinary student at Washtenaw Community College. She has been active on a variety of social justice issues for human and non-human animals, such as ending homelessness, tenants’ rights, anti-racism, anti-war, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights, workers’ rights, and animal liberation. She lives in Ann Arbor, MI where she works as a high school librarian, mountain bikes as often as possible, reads a lot, and spends time with family and friends. If she were a Harry Potter character, she would be Tonks.

Lydia Cohen

Lydia Cohen Harris is extremely excited to return as a counselor to YEA Camp Massachusetts after having an excellent and powerful time in 2018! She currently works for a tech startup in New York City, and her foremost passion in life is taking action for all animals (including humans). She has both worked and volunteered with animal rights organizations such as Mercy For Animals, The Humane League, Farm Animals Rights Movement, Vegan Outreach, and Farm Sanctuary. Within the next few years, Lydia plans to attend graduate school and eventually pursue a career in education, with a goal of uplifting often-neglected narratives of marginalized and oppressed communities within a classroom setting. Lydia looks forward to bringing her experience in animal rights, environmental and food justice, and anti-incarceration organizing to YEA Camp, and she cannot wait to learn and grow with campers as they make action plans to help the world change for the better!

Martina Gauderer

Martina Gauderer is an artist and mental health clinician specializing in expressive arts therapy, and a longtime activist. She works with marginalized youth and adults experiencing trauma and is especially passionate about sexual violence recovery and prevention, LGBTQ+ affirmative services, suicide prevention, and addressing the mental health disparities that affect racial/ethnic, gender, and sexual minorities. Martina also works for a Boston-based organization delivering a yoga-based program to individuals experiencing trauma globally. She advocates for the rights of women and girls, the LGBTQ+ community, and animals, and has studied the connections between human and animal suffering, addressing these concerns through education, early intervention, and rehabilitation. Martina is most passionate about arts in activism. She is working towards her Massachusetts state licensure in mental health counseling and starting a private practice specializing in supporting other activists. This is her second year at YEA Camp having attended the adult session last summer and her first year as a staff member working at both the adult and east coast youth session. She is thrilled to be on board!

Danielle Holtz
Ananya Singh

Ananya Singh is a former YEA Camper-turned-counselor, and a passionate youth environmental activist. She has worked with YEA Camp in a variety of capacities for the past three years, from serving on the Youth Advisory Board to co-leading the Fellowship & Advisory Board this year.

Climate justice has been the issue closest to her heart since 2015, when she began organizing at her middle school with the support of Greenpeace. Since then, she has worked with several organizations, including Sierra Student Coalition and Sunrise Movement to organize in her community. In 2018, she worked with a local college student to form a state-wide coalition of high school and college environmental groups in New Jersey, to build collective power and advocate for stronger environmental policies. She recently became the Chief Executive Officer of Greening Forward, a youth-led organization that empowers young environmentalists with the resources and support to create change. She loves leading this organization that combines her greatest passions: youth voice and environmental activism. She also works with the National Youth Leadership Council to advocate for service-learning and youth voice, and education equity, as the Youth Advisory Council Mentor. Outside of her activism, Ananya enjoys spending time in nature, making smoothie bowls, listening to podcasts, and creating art.

Leanne Alaman

Leanne Alaman is the Community Connections Manager at YEA Camp and this year she co-led YEA Camp’s pilot youth Fellowship and Advisory Board (FAB). In 2018, after leading workshops for many years in partnership with other organizations, Leanne founded Embodied Contribution Consulting provide training to individuals and nonprofits who want to make a bigger difference by having their impact match their intent.

Leanne is passionate about supporting change-makers and youth and has worked in youth development, restorative justice and anti-oppression education/ social justice for over 10 years. Leanne has worked in after-school programs, taught activism in Denver Public Schools and served as a Restorative Justice Coordinator in Berkeley Public Schools. Leanne has supported the creation of several organizations including YEA Camp, Creative Strategies for Change and SPACECRAFT the Reuse Store and Space-to-Craft. Leanne is a recent participant in the Spring 2019 cohort of Chinook Fund’s Giving Project that trains social justice leaders in grassroots fundraising and grantmaking. Leanne hopes to continue to support and empower those who want to make a difference to make the biggest difference they can make.

Elizabeth Buechele

Liz Buechele is the Operations Manager — and wearer of many hats — for YEA Camp. In 2011, she founded The Smile Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading Happiness through acts of kindness and empowering youth to make a bigger difference in their schools and communities. Liz frequents leadership camps and schools to talk about The Smile Project and its message of kindness. Liz is a passionate advocate for the Rotary Youth Leadership Award program (RYLA summer camp) where she spends 1 week each June working as a counselor.

Liz has also previously worked or volunteered at United Way, DoSomething.org, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Riverside Church, the Travis Manion Foundation, the American Cancer Society, American Heart & Stroke Association, and most recently, The Pollination Project, to name a few. She has taken multiple training courses on sexual assault and mental health and was a member of the Sexual Assault Task Force while a student at Westminster College (Pennsylvania). Liz lives in New York City where she enjoys writing, running, traveling, and watching the dogs at the Union Square Dog Park.

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Laura Carver

Laura has been an activist since age 14 and has been an educator for over 15 years. In college, she majored in Environmental Education at Oregon State University while teaching at various youth programs including outdoor school, nature centers, YMCA camps, and the Boys and Girls club.
After college, she pursued her passion for making a difference by working for several nonprofits including the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) in Connecticut, a non-profit organization that organizes students on issues of the environment and consumer advocacy; Farm Sanctuary, the premier national organization working on behalf of animals raised for food; and the Tompkins County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the national leader for the no-kill animal shelter movement.

In 2006 she obtained her Masters in Education from Portland State University and a teaching license in middle and high school science and math. Laura was a teacher with Portland Public Schools for four years before joining YEA Camp full time in 2010.
As a mother of two, she hopes to use her experience and love of working with young people to inspire the next generation to make a difference. Laura is passionate about addressing the climate crisis and serves as the volunteer Regional Coordinator for the Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) for the Pacific Northwest, supporting CCL group leaders in OR, WA, ID, MT, AK and HI. She participates in the Salem CCL chapter.
Laura has worked at 16(!) sessions of YEA Camp and was hugely instrumental in its development. She currently lives in Salem, Oregon.

Xiao Kuang

Xiao has been interested in educational inequality since attending Summer Bridge before her freshman year at UC San Diego. Ever since then, she has been a mentor, facilitator, and researcher for various groups on campus. Her passion lies working with disadvantaged and underrepresented students of color to overcome barriers that inhibit their success in education. She does so by teaching and researching for the Contemporary Issues class for Summer Bridge, which focuses on educational inequality with regards to classism, sexism, racism, and systematic oppression.

Xiao was the Academic Coordinator at Monterey Peninsula College for the TRiO Math/Science Upward Bound program. This 4-week residential program that took place at UC Santa Cruz is designed to give high school students a glimpse into the college life. Xiao provided support and counseling (both one on one and group level) to these students in order to build confidence in them to achieve higher education.

She is currently a graduate student at San Diego State University obtaining her Masters in Counseling with a concentration in Multicultural Community Counseling. Her internship is at Center for Community Counseling and Engagement, which provides low-cost counseling to clients with various mental health illnesses. Throughout her first year of graduate school, one of the few things Xiao has learned is the importance of personal development/awareness, mindfulness, and narratives as empowerment.

Unny Nambudiripad

From Minneapolis, Minnesota, Unny has been a camp counselor at YEA Camp for 2 summers. Unny has been involved in social justice organizing for 20 years for a variety of causes, but especially animals. Currently he is doing fundraising for CTUL, an organization that organizes low-income workers like janitors and fast food workers for better wages and working conditions. Immediately before this, he was the Executive Director of Compassionate Action for Animals.

One of Unny’s favorite things to do as an activist is to build capacity, whether it’s raising funds or developing volunteer leaders. He has found it incredibly fulfilling to meet and build meaningful connections with fellow activists. Some favorite issues to organize around are challenging toxic masculinity, advocating for animals, anti-racism organizing, and transportation advocacy. He likes to meditate, spend time outside, exercise, swim, cross-country ski, commute and travel by bicycle, cook, spend time with friends. He is learning Spanish and speaks some Malayalam, his parents’ language.

Shelby Kim

Shelby has always wanted to make a difference but last summer as a camper at YEA Camp, the forces of the universe really confirmed that activism is her true calling. She’s so excited to be returning as a Counselor in Training! She just graduated from her high school in Los Angeles and will be going to Smith College in the fall.

Shelby has been the co-president of her GSA for two years and is a strong voice for queer representation at her school. In addition, she has invested a lot of time into coordinating inter-school GSA events and creating a local network. She has also been leading a small club called Animal Allies for three years.

Her main passions are animal rights, the environment, and queer rights, but she loves learning about and showing up for all issues of peace and equality (because they’re all connected)! She’s known at school as the rainbow-sock-wearing, reusable-plate-bringing, poster-taping, hiking-boots-wearing, optimist-kid.

Shelby was a camper at age 17 and then has come back on staff for the past two summers as a counselor in training. We are thrilled to welcome Shelby back this summer for her fourth year in a row!

Pierce Delahunt

Pierce Delahunt (they/them) holds an M.Ed. from the Institute for Humane Education. Their research was a study of activist-education programs throughout the country. Pierce has worked with Youth Empowered Action since 2014. They grew up in New York and New Jersey, and currently live in a eco-van traveling the country.

Pierce sees their own work as the union of social-emotional learning and activist-education. They most focus on grassroots outreach and civic involvement, with training in nonviolent communication and empathetic listening.

They work from the frame that individualist social-emotional learning is insufficient: Our capacity to have fulfilling lives and relationships cannot come at the expense of other communities’ abilities to do so. If our peace, love, light, and whole-child education movements do not address systemic injustice, then they are none of those things.

Nathan Brodie

Nathan’s transformation from a privileged bully to an ally for humans and animals started in 2011. His curiosities led him to become a vegetarian and a Big Brother (Big Brother Big Sister) and he hasn’t looked back.

Currently an undergraduate BSW student at Arizona State University, Nathan is involved in many student driven activities. His passions are steering him into the macro side of social work where he plans to make big changes with policies and legislation through research.

One other passion that Nathan loves to talk about and act out is Hip Hop Pedagogy. Also defined as conscious Hip Hop, emcees rap about history and struggles in order to find the roots to positive change.

Nathan came from Arizona to work at the California session of YEA Camp last year, and we hope to have him back in the future.

Monica Carr

Monica Carr holds a BA in non-fiction writing and journalism from Hunter College of the City University of New York. There, she participated with various student clubs, organizations and campaigns including the Hunter V-day Team for four consecutive years, including her leadership role as co-director in the 2012 production of “The Vagina Monologues.”

She has also served as the secretary of Hunter’s Women’s Rights Coalition for six continuous semesters and volunteered with the International Action Center in phone banking, advertising and organizing the annual May Day protests in NYC for workers’ and immigrant rights.

Monica has worked with a non-profit called Girls Write Now, which serves to foster relationships between professional women writers and inner-city high school girls.

Her passion for youth empowerment stems from her counselor position at Lead for Diversity, a week long program for high school students, where she facilitates large and small group workshops addressing issues of bigotry and prejudice.
Some of her most recent ventures have been exploring sustainable modes of living, intentional communities and permaculture farming.

Monica has worked at YEA Camp for the past three summers, and we hope she returns in the future.

Michael Starkey

Michael Starkey is a biologist, activist, and public speaker working to educate and involve the public in animal rights and wildlife conservation issues. He has a diverse background in the field of wildlife conservation and worked as an ecological consultant for environmental consulting firms and government agencies such as the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish & Wildlife.

He has encountered a wide diversity of California wildlife in his work, including San Francisco gartersnakes, giant gartersnakes, California tiger salamanders, bats, and ringtails. He has also studied larval development and parental behavior of the neo-tropical frog, Leptodactylus insularum, at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

He began working with the world’s leading amphibian conservation organization, SAVE THE FROGS!, in 2010 to inform the public about the threats facing amphibians, and has served as Chairman of the Advisory Committee. In this position, he rallied together scientists, volunteers, and others in order to help broaden SAVE THE FROGS’ mission of conservation.

He co-founded Advocates For Snake Preservation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to snake conservation and continues to use his knowledge of snake ecology, positive attitude to inspire, and enthusiasm to engage the public with protecting these beautiful animals.

Michael has given presentations around the world to inform the public about animal rights issues and to help nurture a society that respects and appreciates nature and wildlife. Michael currently lives and works in Belize, Central America.

Michael McLendon

Mike has been one of our amazing, dedicated YEA Camp chefs for 5 years, taking great care of our community. Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Mike spent most of his life in in the Bay Area.
He enjoys writing, being a personal trainer, and, of course, cooking.

Mike says, “My first year with YEA Camp, I was so blown away with the work I saw kids put in to making the planet a better place that I had no choice but to get on board. This camp is like no other camp I’ve worked at. The staff really care about the work that they are doing, and the kids are just as passionate. I have the honor of being one of the cooks on this voyage, so kids– be prepared to be spoiled!”

After Mike’s first summer with us, he promised to spend the next 5 summers with us, and, 5 years later, we are hoping for even more.

Melissa Bergman

Melissa is an award-winning 6th grade English and global history teacher in NYC, and has been for the last 14 years. In class, they discuss many social issues on a regular basis such as gender inequalities, racial and religious prejudice and tolerance, animal rights, and other important issues.

Melissa also started and directed a running camp for kids for 6 summers when YEA camp began. YEA Camp was, and continues to be, her inspiration.

Madeleine Lifsey

Madeleine is an animal rights activist and educator from the East Coast. She is currently a graduate student in the Smith College Master of Arts in Teaching Program and holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Smith College. Throughout high school and college, Madeleine has worked in special education, one-to-one tutoring, and Philosophy for Children programs, empowering kids to engage in critical thinking and ethical debate from an early age.

She has facilitated Philosophy for Children programs with the Balmoral School in Auckland, New Zealand, Eurekamp in Alberta, Canada, the Pioneer Valley homeschooling group in Northampton, MA, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School of Excellence in Springfield, MA. She is excited to learn more about bridging these experiences to more active work in the humane education movement.

Madeleine has been involved in animal rights and environmental activism since before middle school, and has worked with Farm Sanctuary, the League of Humane Voters, and The Humane League. In 2012, Madeleine co-founded Animal Advocates of Smith College, and has also been active with the American Sign Language and Deaf Culture Club, Transcending Gender (a trans* students and allies campus group), and the House Sustainability Representatives.

Vegetarian for most of her life and vegan since fourteen, Madeleine sees making vegan living more accessible to a wider demographic as a necessary step in moving away from the speciesism, racism, ableism, sexism and cissexism that pervades our society. Madeleine is working to bring more intersectional awareness to her activism, and is thrilled to have the privilege to learn and grow with YEA Camp social justice community members of all ages and backgrounds.

Lacey Carlson

Lacey Carlson is a student, activist, and aspiring environmental educator who is passionate about compassion. At age 14 she became vegan with support from her family, and has continuously worked since then to open her own eyes, and those of others, about animal rights, environmental sustainability, social justice, and the intersections of all three.

In high school, she worked as a docent for the Woodcreek Nature Center, guiding nature walks and teaching children about the environment, and volunteered with Sacramento Vegan Community Challenge for many events such as Sacramento Vegan Chef Challenge and 1000 Vegan Cupcakes for Charity.

She has participated in many animal advocacy campaigns and protests, including the UC Davis Primate Research Protest and the Humane Lobby Day, in her hometown of Sacramento, CA.

She currently attends University of California, Santa Cruz as an Environmental Studies major, and is an intern with Life Lab!, a garden-based environmental education program that takes local elementary schools on field trips to teach them about connections between the food we eat and the world we live in.

Kameke Brown

Kamekə is currently working with Farm Sanctuary as the Volunteer Program Coordinator at their location in Watkins Glen, New York. Her interest in social justice and activism began in high school when she was inspired by a quote by Marie Curie that said “…our particular duty [is] to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.” From there her involvement in and passion for issues of justice evolved through experiences traveling the country and doing national service with a program called AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC).

She is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Social Change (M.A.S.C.) degree at Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley and is passionate about exploring our creative power to bring about a more just and compassionate world. She’s also very passionate about loving on her canine best friend and soulmate, Chaz. Kamekə has been a counselor at YEA Camp for 2 sessions and is incredibly excited to learn from and connect with this amazing community of activists.

Ida Poberezovsky

Ida currently works as a tutor at a school in East Oakland and loves working with her sixth graders, especially when they draw her pictures of dragons or show her a dance they choreographed to a TLC song.

Her passion for youth and social justice was sparked through volunteering as a youth leader at the Mosaic Project, an incredible organization that brings together disparate groups of kids to practice conflict resolution skills and embrace diversity.

She is interested in creating a more peaceful world through healing interpersonal trauma with young people, particularly children of immigrant families (Ida herself moved to America from Russia and Israel when she was 7).

Next year, she will begin her master’s program in Community Mental Health at the California Institute for Integral Studies. She also loves performing improv comedy and exploring nature.

Diana Rose Rachel Frances

Diana’s singing career began at the age of seven with the New York City Opera Children’s Chorus. For ten years she performed solo and ensemble roles with the company, while also collaborating on CD recordings such as The Trans Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas Eve and Other Stories, and with Paul Simon on his demo, The Capeman.

She continued her studies at a performing arts high school and college, and performed for six years with the young artist program, Seagle Music Colony, and toured with their Educational Outreach Program to bring children’s opera to the community.

She began holding private voice lessons as a freshman in college through the Community Music Program, which later blossomed to include varied elements such as combining music with social services, therapeutic healing for children and teens, the development of personal and emotional growth through music, all of which has culminated in the opening I Can Jam Studios.

In addition to I Can Jam Studios LLC, Rachel currently accepted the position as Director of Colorado Arts Center Inc, a non-profit which houses small businesses and proprietors of every facet of the fine arts, set in the Arts District on Santa Fe.
Diana brings her passion for music, love for people, commitment to social justice, and her huge heart to each session of YEA Camp. She has worked at YEA Camp for the past 3 summers and hopes to return next summer.

Claire Tamburello

Claire Tamburello is a student, passionate social justice/animal rights activist, and aspiring photographer and marine biologist. She became vegetarian at age 11 and vegan at age 12 with support from her family. At age 16, Claire organized and attended her town’s first ever circus protest.

She’s participated in numerous animal rights campaigns, including End Circus Cruelty and Keep Michigan’s Wolves Protected. She’s attended many protests, leafleted in groups and solo, aided in farm sanctuary fundraisers, and been an active member of VegTeens, an organization bringing together vegetarian and vegan teens in Michigan. She regularly volunteers at animal shelters and various nonprofits.

Currently, Claire is helping to plan a teens section of the Grand Rapids VegFest, organizing a local park cleanup, and planning a trick-or-treating Halloween event for young vegans. Claire was a camper last year and, as a standout activist this year, will be a fantastic role model for this year’s campers through her role as a counselor in training at our YEA Camp for Animal Advocates. Check out this profile we did on Claire for our YEA Camp Heroes campaign.

Chloe Falkenheim

Chloe is currently a college student and the founder of a non-profit organization called Vegetarian and Vegan Youth (VegYouth).

Chloe served on Mercy for Animals and Pollination Projects’ Youth Advisory Boards and was named the Humane League’s “Student of the Year.” She was a Corporate Policy intern at the Humane Society during Summer 2014.

Chloe has contributed to One Green Planet and Our Hen House, and her work has been featured in the Charleston Gazette, Huffington Post, All Animals magazine, and various blogs.

Aside from school-work and activism, Chloe has raced cross country, played flute orchestra, and worked at summer camps, including YEA Camp!

Alice Ragland

Alice Ragland is a PhD student in the Multicultural and Equity Studies in Education program at The Ohio State University. Her research interests include racism in education, neoliberalism, and Black liberation movements. Alice is also a social justice educator and a long-time community activist and organizer. She has recently organized around issues of racial, environmental, and economic justice.

Alice facilitates educational workshops for teens, educators, and the general public about racism, sexism, capitalism, imperialism, and critical media literacy. In addition to her academic and activist work, Alice writes poetry and creative nonfiction, and she contributes to Against The Current: A Socialist Journal.

Andina Aste-Nieto

Andina Aste-Nieto grew up in two big, wonderful families in San Diego. Several of Andina‘s relations are social justice warriors and she grew up around conversations about oppression and justice for Chicano, American Indian, African-American, homeless, and LGBT communities.

In Andina‘s twenties, she found ways to travel the world and stay connected to her passions for social justice and and working with youth. She visited and volunteered in orphanages and poor indigenous communities in Mexico and Guatemala. She attended the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. One of her most impactful experiences was conducting anthropological research about how resorts are affecting the environment and the Maya community in Tulum, Mexico.

Between some of those adventures, Andina worked as a substitute teacher and teacher’s aide in both public and private schools in the U.S. Her desire to empower the students that are falling through the cracks of the public school system led her to the social justice-oriented multicultural counseling program that she is in currently. Her internship is at the Southern California American Indian Resource Center where she serves children, teens, and adults. Andina is supplementing her Western education with teachings about traditional indigenous healing ceremonies and practices. One of her dreams is to create a program where she can facilitate the empowerment of youth of color through connection to their cultural identity and roots.

Charles Orgbon

After noticing his school’s littering problem as a 12-year-old, Charles Orgbon III began leading school-based community beautification projects.
He quickly realized that the environmental movement was not adequately supporting young environmental changemakers; therefore, he created Greening Forward.

Today, six years later, the youth-driven, youth-imagined organization has grown into the largest movement of its kind. In all, Greening Forward has distributed over $40,000 in funding to youth environmental projects that have also planted over 300 trees, built over 80 compost bins, installed over 200 rain barrels, monitored 11 streams, recycled 120 tons of waste, planned two International Young Environmentalists Youth Summits, and advocated for a number of other environmental issues. The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis has dedicated a piece of the Power of Children permanent exhibit to Charles’s efforts in order to inspire more young people to make a positive difference in the world.

Charles was a counselor at our New York session last year and we absolutely loved working with him. We hope, now that he has graduated from college, his schedule allows for him to work at YEA Camp in future summers.

Aaron 'Yosef' Sorto

Aaron “Yosef” is a man who loves the jungle and anywhere all living beings can coexist and build (like at YEA Camp). Ironically, he grew up in Queens, New York and loves learning from his concrete jungle as well. Getting, giving back to, and just advocating for nature as a whole is his plot. Thus far he’s gotten the chance to work with different groups of people and organizations from brownfield remediation, building or helping out at local community gardens, getting his people back to nature or helping them transition to healthier and more eco-friendly lives, educating teens to “innerstand” and “overstand” issues they face in the inner city, raising awareness through music, feeding and clothing the homeless and park clean ups.

Being a lover of the arts and participating in open mics, he has been inspired by others who are using their talents to raise awareness (including YEA Camp campers and staff) to do the same! Aaron also loves to research anything relevant to life like alternative medicine, natural history and science, law, botany, how to make your own soaps, and anything Steve Irwin or Ace Ventura would know.
Aaron has spent 4 summers working at YEA Camp.

Nora Kramer

Nora Kramer founded YEA Camp in 2009 after 10 years as an activist, always looking to make a bigger difference. From working on political campaigns to handing out tens of thousands of leaflets and collecting thousands of signatures, to writing letters, giving talks, and training new activists, you name it and she’s probably done a lot of it (though only peaceful stuff — and no, she’s never been arrested).

Through grassroots outreach, Nora met many young people who cared deeply about causes when they found out about them. She started working with youth, getting her teaching credential and teaching high school English, environmental education, at after-school programs, and — of course — at camps, where she is inspired by the idealism, silliness, honesty, and courage of young people.

Recognizing the need for aspiring activists to get training and support to become changemakers on causes they care about, Nora developed the idea and primary curriculum for YEA Camp. As a lifelong learner, Nora has pulled from her own activist education to develop YEA Camp’s unique curriculum, which infuses learnings from social justice, activism, leadership, mindfulness, and personal development trainings. She loves this creative way to combine her obsession with activism and social change with her passion for working with youth, and spends all year preparing for summer.