Young environmentalist aims high
By Kara McIntosh
Stayner teenager Noa Bridson thinks globally while acting locally.
The Grade 11 student at Collingwood Collegiate Institute (CCI) has recently been named one of the Top 25 Environmentalists Under 25 by The Starfish Canada, an online environmental organization committed to encouraging positive change through scholarship, workshops and research.
Exploring the world with her parents has inspired Noa to see the big picture. The family lived in India when Noa was 10, and spent much of that year backpacking around Asia and Africa. When Noa was 14, they lived in Vietnam where she attended an International School where her parents worked as teachers.
Noa recalls, “There was amazing beauty in the places we travelled in Asia and Africa, but we also saw so much environmental degradation, like deforestation in India and currents of garbage floating through the South Pacific. I remember thinking that if humans could have a negative impact on the environment, then they must also be able to have a positive one, too.”
When they came home to Clearview, Noa brought a global and environmental awareness back with her. She knew that she wanted to protect the natural world, so she began close to home. Noa organizes youth to clean up sideroads and local parklands. She started and runs CCI’s Earth Link Environmental Club. She also sits on the Ontario Youth Council and serves on the Environment Network’s Board as a Youth Director.
“I started Earth Link at CCI because I saw that so many people cared about the environment, but there wasn’t any outlet or way for them to help at school,” Noa said. “Earth Link presents students with opportunities to make positive changes in both the school and the community.”
Noa’s Environmental Science teacher Bryden Jones is also the Faculty Advisor for Earth Link. He acknowledges that Noa, who is 17, is wise beyond her years.
“Noa inspires people. She’s amazing at organizing and delegating and knows how to get things done. The way she thinks, she is really an extraordinary person… Her yearbook quote should read, ‘Most Likely to Win a Nobel Prize’.”
Noa has just been accepted to Pearson College, a two-year International Baccalaureate school on Vancouver Island. The admission process is competitive; the program accepts only a few students from each province in Canada, with the rest coming from 84 countries around the world.
She is looking forward to being part of a program whose aim is to inspire students to create a more peaceful and sustainable future. “I’m very excited about the opportunity to go to Pearson and continue my work in environmental sustainability,” she said.
