Uploaded January 2021 | Updated September 2026, 10 hours ago
2020 Emerald Award recipient in the Public Education & Outreach category, presented by Government of Alberta
Steve McIsaac says when experiential learning group Inside Education started doing youth environmental leadership summits for students in 2011, they were answering a need that was already there.
“We believe and we have learned from students that they’re fundamentally disinterested in waiting until some magical day, in quote marks, ‘when I grow up,’ to make a difference,” he says.
The typical summit sees twenty high schools invited to a three-day weekend of programming, offering around 80 students and 40 teachers the opportunity to hear from keynote speakers — from cabinet ministers to scientists to First Nations leaders — and take part in hands-on workshops.
The most recent summit, which happened in March just before the pandemic struck, was based around agriculture.
2020 Emerald Award recipient in the Public Education & Outreach category, presented by Government of Alberta
Steve McIsaac says when experiential learning group Inside Education started doing youth environmental leadership summits for students in 2011, they were answering a need that was already there.
“We believe and we have learned from students that they’re fundamentally disinterested in waiting until some magical day, in quote marks, ‘when I grow up,’ to make a difference,” he says.
The typical summit sees twenty high schools invited to a three-day weekend of programming, offering around 80 students and 40 teachers the opportunity to hear from keynote speakers — from cabinet ministers to scientists to First Nations leaders — and take part in hands-on workshops.
The most recent summit, which happened in March just before the pandemic struck, was based around agriculture.
