By Sanjana Thimmidi

Anna Melis, environmentalist extraordinaire, does a lot more than you’d think. Anna, a junior, began her environmental fight not even a year ago after reading the 2018 International Plant Protection Convention report concerning climate change. Since then, she has gone on to create TPA’s climate change awareness club. Her club contacts elected officials to share their concerns and thoughts.

At school, she is looking into getting more eco-friendly toilets. She works with Senior Oliver Ricken on the new composting project seen around the school.

However, she does more environmental work outside of school as well. She is a corral organizer of Arizona Youth Climate Strike, an organization advocating against climate change. She was involved with a group of people who sued the government for taking away their futures.

She co-organized a summit which was partnered with ASU’s School of Sustainability. This summit had great speakers talking about policy, lobbying and press. She’s even a part of the Zero Hour organization, which gives a voice to the youth on the subject of climate change. She regularly speaks at different meetings and organization, such as the Tempe Council.

However, she does add that she alone cannot make a difference, but “if everyone is trying to do even a little bit, it’s going to make a difference.”