Overview: Over 500 middle-school students from 11 Title I schools in San Bernardino and Rialto attended the 3rd Annual Future Green Leaders Summit, a STEAM career and resource fair presented by SoCalREN. The summit was designed to give students curated lessons on sustainability and clean energy, and featured costumed superheroes representing different renewable energy sources, board games tackling extreme heat and drought, and artificial intelligence helping them redesign neighborhoods after climate disasters. The event aimed to connect students in communities shouldering the brunt of pollution to the clean energy transition.
Aryana Noroozi
Over 500 middle school students from 11 Title I schools in San Bernardino and Rialto stepped into a different kind of classroom this month – where superheroes rapped about hydrogen and solar power, board games tackled extreme heat and drought, and artificial intelligence helped them redesign neighborhoods after climate disasters.
The students gathered earlier this month at the historic Enterprise Building in downtown San Bernardino for the 3rd Annual Future Green Leaders Summit, a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) career and resource fair presented by the Southern California Regional Energy Network (SoCalREN). SoCalREN is a County of Los Angeles program authorized by the California Public Utilities Commission to provide energy efficiency and workforce development across 13 Southern California counties, including San Bernardino.
The daylong summit was designed to give students curated lessons on a fast-growing sector that differs from their typical curriculum: sustainability and clean energy. For many, it was their first time seeing innovative clean-energy technologies up close or hearing adults lay out concrete pathways into energy-efficiency, climate and green infrastructure jobs. Since its launch in 2023, organizers estimate the summit has reached about 2,100 students.
Students were greeted in the morning by costumed superheroes representing different renewable energy sources including wind, solar and geothermal. These characters returned throughout the day for an “Energy Battle Royale.” In the interactive rap and dance battles, created by the nonprofit Global Inheritance, each character broke down what their energy source represents while students cheered, debated and voted on which powers they’d use to fuel the world.
San Bernardino Mayor Helen Tran joined local and county leaders to welcome students, including Quintin Haynes, chief deputy director of Los Angeles County’s Internal Services Department, and San Bernardino City Unified School District Superintendent Mauricio Arellano.
Emceeing the morning program was AY Young, a global music artist, founder/CEO of the Battery Tour and former United Nations Youth Ambassador. Young popped up throughout the day – first as a host, then in small-group workshops where he used music and storytelling to show students how passion can fuel impact, and in a closing performance with a call to action.
Inside the Enterprise Building, each floor offered a different way to think about the climate crisis and local solutions.
Environmental educator and media producer Kristy Drutman, known online as Browngirl Green, used storytelling and the students’ own daily experiences to help them imagine where they might fit in the green economy.
In another room, students gathered around tables for “Climate Cooldown,” a board game created by Thomas Yount, founder of Clean Earth Future. Working in teams, students designed new cards to add to the game by each proposing a solution to Inland Empire challenges such as air pollution, extreme heat and drought.
Artificial intelligence and mapping tools took center stage in a workshop led by Los Angeles Trade-Technical College professor Marcela Oliva and her college students. Using an AI-powered digital map of Altadena modeled after the Eaton Fire, middle-schoolers used interactive GIS maps and data tools to redesign the community with climate impacts in mind, learning how data and planning shape real-world neighborhoods.
Students also dove into “The Home Energy Efficiency Challenge,” a workshop led by the Green Energy Tribe and facilitated by Robyn Mancell, CEO of Green Energy Solutions Holdings and a board member of U.S. Green Building Council California, along with her business partner Angela Morrow. Through a gamified challenge, students worked together to create energy solutions for homes, learning the basics of sustainable living, renewable energy and eco-friendly design. Mancell and Morrow are actively involved with sustainability efforts in the Inland region.
Event organizer Julie Du Brow said one of the most rewarding parts of the summit was how willing students were to try everything – from AI mapping activities to hands-on games in the resource fair.
Amanda Fernandez, an ArrowView Middle School STEAM teacher, who majored in environmental studies herself, said that the summit reinforced lessons she tries to bring into her classroom year-round.
Fernandez explained the value of bringing her students to learn about the actions that can be taken against environmental issues. “Being able to see things change and how other people are changing things is something I wanted them to experience,” she stated.
Her students, she added, didn’t just have fun – they got to apply what they learned.
“My kids really enjoyed it, including the Energy Battle Royale between the different types of energy, but they also really shone when they got to answer a bunch of questions around different types of solutions to environmental problems in the Green Energy Tribe Game with Robyn Mancell of Green Energy Solutions,” Fernandez continued. “We got to use all the vocabulary that we learned. It was amazing.”
Two of the county’s largest employment sectors – transportation and trade – offer major opportunities for energy-efficiency and emerging energy workers. But they are also tied to some of the region’s heaviest pollution burdens. According to the state’s CalEnviroScreen 4.0 tool, many San Bernardino County neighborhoods rank in the 70th to 80th percentile statewide for cumulative pollution from multiple sources.
At the same time, clean energy is one of California’s fastest-growing job engines. In 2023, clean energy employment statewide reached 544,604 jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Energy efficiency remains the largest subsector, with more than 300,000 jobs, while work tied to clean vehicles grew the fastest, up 14.3% that year.
For organizers, connecting those numbers back to students in San Bernardino and Rialto is the point: making sure young people in communities shouldering the brunt of pollution can see themselves as future engineers, planners, technicians, organizers and artists in the clean energy transition.
For educators like Fernandez, the day was not just a special event but hopefully a spark for students to continue engaging with and learning about the clean energy space.
“Them being able to see things change… is something I wanted them to experience,” she said.