By Manat Kaur
The climate crisis feels far bigger than any of us — and it’s easy to get overwhelmed and forget that change can start with a small step. Looking to protect the environment, 17-year-olds Surbhi Jain and Maxwell Feldman from Seattle, Washington started off by installing a compost bin and ended up founding their own organization: The Tomorrow Project.
Through the Tomorrow Project, they’re leading workshops, school-wide projects, and classroom activities to get students familiar with what it means to be environmentally conscious. Along with their other teammates, they’ve spent a lot of time strategizing, refining their curriculum, and reaching out to schools to promote their work.
Ashoka Young Changemaker Manat Kaur spoke with Surbhi and Maxwell about their journey and how first steps don’t always create a straight line to success.
MK: What is The Tomorrow Project’s mission?
The Tomorrow Project is an environmental education organization that teaches the younger generation about the importance of making sustainable choices. Our hope is that as these kids grow into the leaders of tomorrow, they have developed sustainable mindsets. Then making the right choices for the environment comes naturally to them.
When did you first realize you had to take action, and how did you come up with your idea?
In the fall of 2019, we worked with the City of Kirkland to install a compost bin on the street, with ample signage to show the bin was for food-waste only. Unfortunately, the project had to stop after three months, because despite our efforts to advertise the bin as food waste only, there was still a lot of trash contamination in the container.
That’s when we realized there is a bigger issue to address: we have to help people develop sustainable mindsets. This is how our education program came about. We realized that if we start teaching people about the importance of using a compost bin correctly, protecting our local waterways, reducing air pollution, caring for wildlife, then youth will grow up with an understanding of why caring for the environment is important.
What was the first step?
Our first step was to send emails to all of the elementary schools in our local school district. We hoped at least one would respond and express interest, and once we could prove our success in one school, others would want to follow. We originally emailed roughly 12 schools, and we got responses from two.A solid start!
All of our methods and ideas were completely original. We had to work to create our own model, which was difficult. Our plan included setting up preliminary meetings with a faculty or staff member at the school to explain what our project includes, who we are, and what we can do at their school.
How did you feel when you were starting out?
Although we were nervous to get started, we spent many weeks putting together an informative pamphlet and preparing all of our options for each school. A large part of our program is catering our offerings to give schools what they need.
How did you start implementing your idea?
It took us a while to get our program off the ground. The first couple of schools we met with unfortunately had to back out at the last minute. But after weeks of meeting with local elementary schools and walking teachers and administrators through our plan, we finally were able to schedule our first classroom workshop.
In February, we taught a class of around 25 students about water pollution and how their daily actions can actually have detrimental impacts on their local bodies of water. The workshop was a huge success. The students were super engaged, they were able to tell us all the things they learned after the workshop, and we even put together a poster for their classroom with all of the things they committed to changing about their lifestyles to make sure that their local environment would stay healthy and safe.
What obstacles did you face and how have you overcome them?
The biggest obstacle we faced was a lack of motivation when the project got difficult and schools weren’t very responsive. We spent countless hours on it and felt like we weren’t making progress. However, we always went back to our mission and thought about concrete goals we wanted to achieve, focusing on small actions we could take to get there. Having a task list and being able to check off what we accomplished each day, and being a team of young people that all supported each other and were super passionate about our mission, really helped us all stay motivated and enthusiastic about working on the project when things got hard.
Who else supported you throughout your journey? What role did they play?
All us co-founders really supported each other in this endeavor. We also got a lot of support from the teacher who led the seminar where we first originally met in, as well as other teachers from our school. We weren’t meeting very often with them, but it was really nice to see how interested people were in our organization and open to helping us with the most random tasks, whether that’s coming into our name brainstorming session to see if our ideas have a nice ring to them, or looking over a grant application before we submit.
What advice would you give to other young people who want to start their changemaker journey but don’t know where to begin?
In my opinion, the hardest part is starting. But there is no correct way to do it, you just need to start. Once you find an issue you are passionate about, go down deep to identify and isolate a root cause that you can approach. Then brainstorm until you find your solution, but stay open minded to pivoting and making changes to your initial plan. Also, having a team or a support system is super helpful (plus it makes the process even more fun)!
This article has been edited for length and clarity.
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The First Steps series, founded by Ashoka Young Changemaker Manat Kaur, aims to demystify changemaking and show how anyone can start making a change. Follow Ashoka to learn more about #EveryoneAChangemaker and #LeadYoung.