Rubbish

Growing up in Badagry, a rural community in southern Nigeria, I experienced firsthand how lack of basic climate education leads to environmental degradation, devastating waste, plastic and air pollution. In my community, improper plastic and waste disposal leads to catastrophic floods, deforestation accelerates desertification, and prolonged droughts disrupt agriculture. These challenges are existential threats that shape the lives and livelihoods of those around me.

In marginalised communities, including mine, the lack of climate education hinders meaningful climate action and an eco-friendly lifestyle. Even though the effects of these pollutions and detrimental at every point of its lifecycle, its convenience has blinded us to the harm it causes and the poor decisions that leads to it. Having observed this vast knowledge gap that demands attention, I became a climate leader to change the narrative through my humanitarian efforts and my artistry of spoken word poetry for advocacy.

Through my projects such as "Plant A Tree for Life & Climate Education," my work is focused on bridging the knowledge gaps and proffering solutions to waste and plastic pollution, tree planting for reforestation, clean-up drives for land and ocean conservation, and promoting youth empowerment through the 3Ps of programme, pet project, and poetry.

As of March 2025, I have implemented over 20 climate education and youth development projects, impacting over 17,500 young people directly with my team across local government development areas in Lagos over the last three years. I am empowering youths with relevant knowledge, expertise, and tools geared towards tackling environmental issues in their schools and communities.

Through my large-scale social impact projects, I have trained teens and empowered youths to develop tide-turning solutions geared towards tackling global issues like deforestation and plastic pollution accelerating the climate crisis. Some of these participants within our network have utilised the climate education and opportunities provided to embark on personal pet projects, launch organisations, businesses, products, and campaigns, while some others have co-created solutions from previously existing projects. All of these have been geared towards community tree planting, waste to wealth, and climate amelioration.

Additionally, we are leveraging technology for multimedia presentations, songs, poetry, and fine art for students to comprehend easily and get involved in the action to halt the triple planetary crisis (climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss). We also offer hands-on mentorship through Tour Badagry and Dawn Project Competition, which is hands-on and minds-on idea-to-solution incubator for young people.

David Onilude belongs on the Future Minds Under 35 list because of his outstanding work in digital literacy advocacy and social innovation across underserved African communities. Through his organization, Tech Now Global, David has impacted over 13,000 young people across 32 rural communities and 102 schools in Nigeria and beyond. These include students, out-of-school youths, and graduates lacking access to quality digital education and economic opportunities.

Support Provided:

David led the design and execution of multiple initiatives like the Tech Immersion & Incubation Program (TIIP) for graduates, TECNIT BootCamp for secondary students, and TADASA Summer Camp, which develops soft and technical skills for teenagers. These programs offer hands-on training in digital skills, entrepreneurship, and changemaking, supported by a dedicated team of changemakers David trained and empowered.

Funding Raised:

David has raised over $18,000 in both cash and in-kind donations, securing resources like laptops, internet access, and venue support through partnerships with local leaders, schools, and donors. His ability to mobilize support through storytelling and community engagement has been pivotal to Tech Now Global’s growth.

Impact for Beneficiaries:

For the communities and individuals he serves, David’s work has been transformative. 80% of his core team are now running their own initiatives, a ripple effect of his changemaking model. Youths previously without hope for a digital career now build apps, run small businesses, and lead community projects. His initiatives offer not just skills but dignity, leadership, and opportunity.

Case Study:

One notable case is SuleEmmanuella, a participant in the Btech program, who after being introduced to changemaking and digital tools, founded “Circles”, an initiative focused on mental health in rural schools. She was later selected as a Millennium Fellow, becoming an example of how David’s model fosters leaders who go on to impact others. Abigail now works with over 150 students across 3 communities, offering mental wellness education and peer-support systems.

Kudakwashe is a youth empowerment enthusiast, with close to a decade of experience in the educational and professional development space as a teacher, mentor, researcher,author and co-founder. Consequently impacting over 3000 young people. She started teaching at  19 years a career that spanned for four years. This translated into mentoring social impact entities at events like the  MIT Grand Hackathon, and Merge Policython,  mentoring  15+ impact projects solving global challenges in health and education. Subsequently,   she mentored as a Peace First Regional Ambassador, mentoring "The book campaign project" which provided textbooks and library access to students in Gwanda.  Consequently, coordinating the first in-person Sub Saharan Africa Peace First Impact room session. She also co-founded a small social impact entity called The LA Initiative which works to democratize educational and professional development opportunities and has now engaged youths, mentors, and speakers across 10 countries. As a Say What Research Fellow, a program supported by the Swedish embassy, she researched inclusive education for students living with disabilities in times of systemic disruptions like COVID-19, this was consequently published into a book called “Empowering Young Voices: Unveiling the Hidden Realities of Young People in Zimbabwe”.  Ultimately, receiving recognition as a social impact leader from Donors For Africa, The Future of Africa Awards, The Emy Africa awards as a nominee for the Youth Change Maker Award,  The Varkey Foundation and Cheggdotorg as a Global Student Prize Finalist, The Diana Award, UNICEF Innocenti, Aspire Institute, and Crisis UK amongst others. Kudakwashe is an avid believer in volunteering within different educational platforms, therefore she has volunteered with the Royal Commonwealth Society as a judge for the Queen's Commonwealth essay contest from 2022 to 2024 with the possibility of extending to 2025. Ultimately, she serves as an AU-EU Youth Action Lab Advisory Board Member where she represents young people in the co-creation of youth friendly funding opportunities as well as the disbursement of grants ranging from 10000 to 50000 Euros along 4 grants modalities, namely Representation, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Cooperation.

Impact:

• Since 2021, Girls4Sports has been able to transform sports accessibility in the world, integrating 39,600 underserved girls into sports across 23 countries through free sports camps, advocacy conferences, and sports equipment drives.
• We’ve collected and donated 5,350 sports equipment to Oakland Children’s Hospital, Sacramento Children’s Home, Shepherd's Gate, and Tri-Valley Haven, helping underserved girls gain access to sports when cost is a barrier
• Girls4Sports is now the world’s largest student-run organization fighting gender inequality in sports with 1,500+ volunteers and has educated 12.56 million on the importance of women in sports through media. We have raised $60,000 for underserved female athletes.
  

Founding story & Case Study:

“Why are you even trying? Girls aren't tough enough for this sport.”

The comment cut deep. Heat radiated off me as a faint blush traveled up my skin.

As an avid athlete, I grew up loving sports. I played six sports: basketball, swimming, badminton, tennis, soccer, and volleyball. Swimming became the sport I dedicated the most time to, as I fell in love with the balance between competition and teamwork. After joining a year-long competition team, I began practicing for 2 hours, 5 days a week, striving to improve my best time by even milliseconds.

However, I started receiving degrading comments like these from male swimmers on my team once I began striving for my state competition’s cut times. I was told that I needed to build more muscle, change my “weaker” mindset, and be faster in order to be as “good” as a male swimmer. Each comment was underpinned by the ideology that being male equated to superiority. I was told I was slow. I was weak. I was female.

These comments had a lasting impact on me, casting a shadow of inferiority that loomed over me throughout the remainder of the swim season. But being vulnerable with the other girls on my swim team helped me realize that this was a shared experience. I had to do something.

So, at 13—with wide eyes, sweaty palms, and a voracious desire—I opened my laptop. I studied the work of Kamala Harris, Sonia Sotomayor, and Malala Yousafzai. These women inspired me to take action and stand up for the causes I believe in. More specifically, after learning how deeply rooted gender inequity in sports was, I was driven to create an organization to help other girls because, as Malala Yousafzai put it, “we realize the power of voices only when we are silenced.”

None of my family members had been involved in the nonprofit sector, so I had to navigate all legal and service work completely independently and spend extra time researching, finding connections, and mentors. Still, my ravenous passion didn't stop me from overcoming such obstacles. I spent hours figuring out cold emailing techniques, ways to start a social media platform, and recruiting a team—learning through any and all means: Google searches, Reddit posts, Quora questions. I worked off no funding. I used my own money to fund events, money earned through saving each penny, from birthday money to even getting a job as a swim instructor, to ensure that Girls4Sports could pay for facilities and support its growth. I spread the word by telling close friends, contacting school district officials and business professionals, and setting up a social media platform to connect with a widespread audience. I also reached out to athletes by email to recruit them as mentors and set up a small executive team.

Over time, one person, idea, and dream turned into the world’s largest youth-led organization fighting gender inequality in sports—1,600 volunteers, 33 branches, 39,600 girls, and 12.56 million people educated. We hosted the world’s first international women in sports conference, bringing together former female world champions like Chris Evert and Olympians from around the world like Maana Patel, Alejandra Aybar, and Stef Reid. We fostered partnerships with Dick’s Sporting Goods, the Women’s Sports Foundation, and youth-led nonprofits. All of these individuals involved in Girls4Sports have been given the opportunity to understand and carry out Girls4Sports’ mission of accessibility in sports by engaging in and leading events that follow our mission.

[Case Study]

The Girls4Sports chapters, in particular, allow qualified girls to bring our programs and mission to more localized areas.  A girl I was mentoring in a freshman mentor program was inspired by the work of Girls4Sports after our first event, the Sports Equipment drive. She immediately asked how she could bring the initiative to her own school as she was a track athlete who had been body shamed and was trying to overcome gender injustice in her own school.   When I explained the chapter process to her, she was on board to create a branch of Girls4Sports at her school. She formed an officer team, a network of athletes, and proper social media marketing and gained 30 members within a month. Her branch, EHS Girls4Sports, was our first branch of Girls4Sports. Today, she has initiated ten empowerment events that have impacted 300 girls.

Her story is modeled in the rest of our chapters that span 23 countries I hope this impact will continue to grow through many more nations and states, allowing for more girls like her to enjoy the message of girls in sports.

[Reflection]

Girls4Sports was my first leadership role and the first time I took independent action. It was the first time that I stepped outside of my comfort zone, the first time I used my own money, and the first time I used social media. It was the first time I defied the notion that my gender determined my capabilities and the first time I truly understood the impact that we, as women, can make. Every hurdle I overcame and every stereotype I dismantled taught me the power of perseverance and the importance of giving a voice to the voiceless.

Looking into the future, I hope to see more firsts—the first time a new volunteer leads an event, the first time a girl who never had the opportunity to pursue sports joins a team, and the first time another young girl realizes her potential.

Maya Siegel is the co-founder of Stories of Consent, the first and only national organization in the United States that uses a youth-led, peer-education model to provide consent education in states without educational mandates. In just a year and a half, they initiated conversations about consent with over 462,000 individuals and have implemented an educational model that impacts middle and high school students across 45 U.S. states.

Maya is also the Platforms Manager at FEMINIST, the largest (6M+ followers across platforms) women-owned nonprofit media platform for women, girls, and gender-expansive people. She is a founding board member at Intersectional Environmentalist and the creator of Opportunities for Young People, a climate and social justice opportunities newsletter for Gen Z.

Maya has led social strategy for initiatives including Intersectional Environmentalist, a climate justice nonprofit centering BIPOC and historically under-amplified voices; Emerging Radiance, a mural and AR experience that won Best Immersive Project at Tribeca in June 2022; the TOMFORD Plastic Innovation Prize powered by Lonely Whale, a $1.2M prize purse for alternatives to thin-film plastic. Her work focuses on narrative-centered initiatives to foster a more sustainable and equitable future. She is a 2024 Diana Award Recipient, 2024 Bloom 30 Under 30 Social Impact Honoree, 2024 NationSwell Fellow, 2023 ADCOLOR FUTURE, and a 2023 Estée Lauder Vital Voices Visionaries Fellow.

My work sits at the intersection of climate action, education, and systems change with institutions. I am is all about expanding his thinking and exposing himself to new perspectives. My work aims to combine my passions for engineering, politics and business to create a real impact and help Australia become a global powerhouse in sustainability and renewable energy. As part of the Wattle Fellowship, I am leading a project to help St Hilda’s College become one of the first net-zero university colleges in Australia—impacting the daily lives of over 250 students and staff. This includes conducting a comprehensive energy audit, funded through $15,000 in secured support, and authoring an evidence-based report to guide educational institutions in achieving net zero through practical, scalable strategies. I see this project and subsequent report not only as operational tools, but as educational blueprints to help young people understand their role in shaping a climate-resilient future. With the support of the Wattle Fellowship and St Hilda’s leadership, I hope to create a space for students to believe that climate action is still within reach—that through collaboration and courage, our generation can lead meaningful, measurable change. Recently, I began a new project, applying my work at the individual level - conducting a personal sustainability audit across both business operations and private life. Through this, we want to clearly communicate the facts around personal emissions, recommend smart and efficient solutions, and explore ways to offset impact—all with the shared goal of helping people and leaving the world better than we found it. However, environmental work is only one of my areas of passion: during my time as Secretary of the student club, I introduced the first known gender-equitable leadership model at an Australian college - co-presidents of different genders. I authored this change in the student club's constitution, reshaping the decision-making structures to promote different perspectives, diversity and shared power. Beyond campus, I raised over $5,500 for cystic fibrosis research by running 67 laps in honour of my family. Over 25 people ran with me, showing me the incredible feelings associated with community-led change.