Green Pulse Education: Stevenson High School Students Drive Environmental Change Locally and Globally

Since April of 2023, four students at Adlai E. Stevenson High School have been making waves with their non-profit Green Pulse Education which has worked to address the lack of environmental literacy within the broader Chicagoland community.

The Co-Founders, having extensive backgrounds in environmental action, had met at their school’s Green Team after collaborating on a campaign against single-use plastic utensils. From there, they entered Envirothon – North America’s biggest environmental competition – to showcase their newfound environmental knowledge. At the international level, they met delegates from Manitoba whose homes and livelihoods were under threat from increasingly volatile forest fires.

Coming home determined to make a difference, President Shourya Mehta and Co-Founders Ishaan Bhonagiri, Tej Kosaraju and Sylvie Kang have since strategically partnered with local elementary and middle schools to create lasting, systematic change.

Over the past year, they’ve spoken to more than two thousand individuals at 20 schools, collaborated with organizations such as UIUC and Beyond Plastic, conversed with senators from New York and Illinois to facilitate discussions about microplastics, and successfully passed plastic bag ban and tax legislation within the Evanston community.

Lisa Solesky, Daniel Wright Junior High School Science Olympiad Coach, spoke glowingly of her school’s experience with Green Pulse.

“Their interesting and informative presentation was followed by a question/answer session and an interactive game for the entire team which the kids had a blast doing," Solesky said. "We would love to have them back again!”

They’ve further worked to democratize these resources with their entire environmental curriculum, consisting of courses on wildlife, hydrology, geology and ecology, being available online. Green Pulse’s social media has garnered recognition from both large environmental activists and student groups at Brown University, with their Instagram account accumulating thousands of engagements. With this, they’ve extended the scope of their impact with numerous counterpart chapters being created across the nation.

As the group strives to advance several legislative initiatives this summer, including Bill HB4895 which mandates K-12 environmental education in Illinois, they are also preparing for their end-of-summer microplastics panel at Vernon Area Public Library. This event will feature State Representative Fabbi Vasquez. Additionally, the group is expanding internationally, with new chapters being established in Nigeria, Canada and India.