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EUC's High School Outreach: Building Tomorrow's Environmental Leaders

EUC's High School Outreach: Building Tomorrow's Environmental Leaders

Future Changemakers take a Sustainable Campus Tour to learn more about the sustainability features throughout the York University – Keele Campus.

In 2025, we’re amplifying our commitment to high school outreach at EUC with expanded programs and new initiatives. We're building on last year's success to create even more meaningful connections with future environmental changemakers. 

For us, high school engagement goes beyond recruitment – it's rooted in our core value of inspiring and empowering youth to create positive change for both people and the planet. Through our programs, we focus on nurturing environmental awareness in young minds early on, supplementing the Ontario curriculum by integrating environmental and urban education across all subject areas. 

Let's look at how our framework and achievements from 2024 can help shape this year's exciting developments. We developed a comprehensive Secondary School Outreach Framework that breaks down the essentials of our high school outreach efforts:  

A visual breakdown showing the three interconnected pillars of EUC's approach to secondary school outreach.
A visual breakdown showing the three interconnected pillars of EUC's approach to secondary school outreach.

The framework divides our efforts into three main categories: 

  • Curriculum development & resources, including lesson plans and educator support materials 
  • Program structure, featuring mock lectures, field trips, and workshops 
  • Partnerships with schools and community organizations  

Our 2024 high school outreach efforts have yielded notable results, with a 10% increase in Fall-Winter 2024-2025 applicants and eight new community partnerships.  

Curriculum development & resources 

Title page of the Cost of Fast Fashion lesson plan.
Title page of the Cost of Fast Fashion lesson plan.

Looking for ready-to-use lesson plans? High school educators can continue accessing these popular resources through our website in 2025. Designed for grades 9 through 12 across all academic disciplines, we're growing our collection to bring more environmental education into different subjects. 

From September 2023 to May 2024, our lesson plans were downloaded 336 times in total. We designed the plans in alignment with the Ontario curriculum – but not all our downloads came from Ontario! We've had downloads from high schools in British Columbia, the USA, and even from colleges as well. 

An example of a lesson plan we developed is the “The Cost of Fast Fashion” lesson plan. Educators can use this lesson plan for Grade 12 World Issues: A Geographic Analysis (CGW4U) – or any other relevant courses.  

This lesson plan was developed by Sofia Colalillo, an EUC Environmental Arts & Justice program graduate now pursuing Education studies. Sofia's work exemplifies how our curriculum comes to life through student engagement – particularly through our Changemaker Workshops. Which brings us to our next point... 

Program structure 

Our Program Structure initiatives focus on providing high school students with an opportunity to experience what it’s like to be an EUC student. We’ve offered activities and programs like: 

Sofia Colalillo presenting her workshop at the UNESCO conference.
Sofia Colalillo presenting her workshop at the UNESCO conference. Photo by Andrea Abello.

Students engage in microscope work during our Future Changemakers Summer Program.
Students engaged in microscope work during our Future Changemakers Summer Program. Photo by Timothy Ong. 

Speaking of Changemaker Workshops, our students have presented these multiple times during high school visits and EUC events. In April 2024, Sofia presented her Fast Fashion workshop at the UNESCO Schools Network National Conference, demonstrating the broader impact of our curriculum development efforts.    

Future Changemakers Summer Program was a new addition to our Program Structure in 2024. It’s a week-long summer camp offered to students in grades 10 to 12. Our camp is packed with exciting activities, workshops, and guest speakers to inspire and empower the next generation of changemakers.  

In the 2024 Future Changemakers Summer Program, for example, Jennifer Korosi, associate professor at EUC, took students to the Black Creek river to gather water samples, which were later brought back to a lab to assess water bugs. 

Partnerships, collaboration & community outreach 

Throughout 2024, we collaborated with various schools and organizations to host significant events such as: 

  • Change Your World: an annual conference aiming to inspire youth in Ontario to be the next generation of environmentally active citizens. 
  • GIS Day: a global event celebrating the transformative power of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and geomatics, organized in partnership with the Toronto Regional Conservation Authority (TRCA). 
  • Design Thinking Challenge: a two-part event where students develop solutions for sustainable architecture (SHSM Ice Challenge Case Competition) and global challenges (Urban Solutions Program).  

Here’s a quick recap of our 2024 Change Your World conference:  

Building on these successful partnerships, we're excited to continue delivering and expanding these events throughout 2025, working alongside organizations that share our commitment to environmental education. 

Of course, this post barely scratches the surface of everything we did in 2024. But it gives you a peek into how we're connecting with the next generation of environmental leaders. We're excited to keep growing these initiatives and welcome even more students into our EUC community in the coming years.  

If you’re interested in partnering and collaborating with us on future initiatives, please contact: 

Brittany Giglio | She/Her

Recruitment & Liaison Officer

EUCapply@yorku.ca

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