Sylvi Kayser
2026 Student Award Recipient for Excellence in Environmental Education
The California Environmental Education Foundation (CEEF) is thrilled to award the 2026 Excellence in Environmental Education Award in the Student category to Sylvi Kayser for her consistent extraordinary leadership, remarkable drive, and undaunted determination as an inspired leader within a countywide, student-led, organization called Youth for Environmental Action (YEA).
Over the last four years Sylvi Kayser has consistently demonstrated extraordinary leadership, remarkable drive, and undaunted determination as an inspired leader within a countywide, student-led, organization called Youth for Environmental Action (YEA). Sylvi’s leadership success has often been achieved collaboratively, including: 1) networking with environmental clubs at high schools throughout Santa Cruz County (Figure 1); 2) advocating for school-site sustainability at Pajaro Valley School District meetings which led to the establishment of a Sustainability Officer position as part of the Associated Student Body Government elected position (Figure 2); 3) working in tandem with her fellow environmental club members to increase student body awareness of proper food-waste separation and disposal (Figure 3); 4) assisting in the writing of a Green Waste Grant with three California Climate Action Core Fellows to purchase large collection bins for students at Aptos High School to help them self-sort their throwaway waste into composting, recycling, and trash receptacles (Figure 4); 5) launching a poet laureate program on her campus; and 6) planning and leading an annual countywide Environmental Action Summit for students (Figure 5).
Since her childhood, Sylvi has always loved to wander in nature, and she treasured living only five minutes away from Capitola Beach. She claims, “she always felt connected to nature,” and it is this “oneness with the environment” that has not only fueled her passion for the natural world and but also led to her embracing environmentalism to protect the environment. Sylvi credits her freshman biology teacher, Madeline Swift, for encouraging her to join YEA and to participate in an afterschool environmental club. In her junior year, it was her AP English Language teacher, Miss Silbart, who sparked her interest in ethics and justice and prompted her to write and publish articles in a student magazine called “The Lookout.” Sylvi was especially grateful for the leadership and dedication of Amity Sandage at the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, who she described as a “wonderful mentor who nurtured our roles as student-leaders” in YEA.
This past summer Sylvi worked as a camp counselor, and she was grateful for the opportunity to teach young campers how to compost their leftovers. Her advice to youngsters is that “no [environmental] action is too small to make a difference.”
This fall, Sylvi has earned the privilege to attend Cambridge University in England to study English, and you’ll never guess what she is already advocating for at both the University and its dormitories? Yes, it’s composting!
We applaud Sylvi’s dedication and determination to be an active steward of the environment.
