Climate Reporting from Youth Journalists

Earth Rising is proud to support Youth Environmental Press Team (YEPT) – a student organization dedicated to uplifting the work of Indiana high school journalists and normalizing youth-led conversations about environmental issues in the media. 

YEPT began by republishing feature stories from high school newspapers in Indiana Environmental Reporter, an independent news outlet supported by the Environmental Resilience Institute at Indiana University. As a result of YEPT’s work, Indiana Environmental Reporter has published more than 15 climate and environment stories written by high school journalists across Indiana.

This year, the YEPT team has their eyes set on expanding and sharing the work of youth environmental reporters with as wide an audience as possible. In the spirit of growth, YEPT has been taking this work to new mediums by partnering with Public News Service to broadcast student stories on FM and AM radio. YEPT also recently launched their new website – a content hub that publishes student editorials, op-eds, and columns in addition to features. YEPT’s team plans to expand this new platform to feature student stories from across the United States, and ultimately, from across the globe. 

Youth Environmental Press Team’s newly-launched website.

In order to further invest in the career development of young writers, YEPT has implemented journalism workshops allowing Indiana students to connect with professional environmental reporters. Students recently enjoyed speaking with Sarah Bowman, a reporter with The Indianapolis Star, to hear about her challenges and experience as a journalist. Jonah Chester of Public News Service also hosted a workshop leading students through the process of pitching a news story. 

Sarah Bowman, bottom left, meets with YEPT reporters.

The YEPT team has found that climate reporting has also galvanized their young writers into action, with many of their student climate journalists taking their advocacy a step further by delving into policy work in their communities. 

We are grateful for  YEPT’s work uplifting critical youth perspectives in the fight for climate justice, and look forward to reading future stories from student journalists. We invite you to do the same by visiting YEPT’s newly launched website!