Students

Students are an active part of our community.

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Students of all ages are advocating for energy efficient activities throughout Wellesley Public Schools, writing articles, lending a hand at events, taking photos, helping with social media, doing research, and so much more. 

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​Students interested in getting involved with Sustainable Wellesley click here​​.

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Sustainable Wellesley's Student Leadership Club

Wellesley High School students interested in Sustainable Wellesley's Student Leadership Club can email us here or ask at the WHS Club Fair.
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Sustainable Wellesley/Wellesley Green Schools - WHS Sustainability Award.

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Since 2025, Sustainable Wellesley/Wellesley Green Schools has been proud to sponsor Sustainability Awards at the Wellesley High School Underclassperson awards night.  This award recognizes students who have made significant contributions to environmental and sustainability initiatives at Wellesley High School or in the Town of Wellesley.  Recipients are nominated by teachers, members of the community or by members of Sustainable Wellesley who have worked with those students throughout the year on environmental or sustainability issues and to educate or inspire their administrators, teachers and peers.  The award includes a $250 check.

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2026 Winners - Julie Rich and Sadie Smith

Julie has shown a mastery of the classroom and labs in AP environmental science.  Outside the classroom she is one of the leaders of WHS’ Climate Action Club and has organized several trash cleanup days around Wellesley. This “energized” junior has helped make several informative videos for the high school announcements about recycling and composting at WHS as well as “bring your own” cup options at local coffee shops.  In addition, she has worked to raise awareness about the MassBay forest and with WHS sports teams to eliminate plastic bottles from banquets.
 

Sadie cares about the environment and reached out to Sustainable Wellesley to volunteer with us. This motivated student researched and wrote articles for our newsletter and used her talents as the photographer for our 12th annual Conversation with the Candidates event.  In addition, she worked with us to research and update infographics on the environmental impact of idling and wrote to state politicians about climate bills.

2025 Winner - Sophia Pavano - Shown above

Sophia took her passion for sustainability beyond the AP Environmental Science classroom walls, into her school and her community.  For example, Sophia was a news editor and writer at The Bradford where she researched and presented environmental topics to her high school community.  She also founded the Food Waste Reduction Club at WHS, recognizing that over one-third of all available food in the US goes uneaten through loss or waste. The Club collects uneaten lunch food from students and delivers it each week to a community fridge in Newton.  She also took on a “heated” issue of our warming classrooms and advocated to our School Committee and Town Meeting members for consideration of technologies and solutions that take into account environmental and health impacts.  In writing and in person, she reminded everyone of the Town’s goals to reduce emissions by 2050 challenging us to ensure that the decisions we make now don’t adversely impact our future.  To prove her point she used a calculation reminiscent of Good Will Hunting and determined that traditional air conditioners would emit 24M lbs of CO2 into Wellesley over their lifespan, the equivalent to driving around the earth more than 4000 times!

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