Here’s How to Support Youth Leaders Like Me Right Now
Provided by: Asian Pacific Environmental Network |Published on: March 12, 2026
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Synopsis
In this article, youth activist Ally Putthongvilai writes about overcoming her fear to speak out about an oil spill on the waterfront in Richmond, California.
Students will learn about the importance of speaking out to affect change and ensure big companies stop polluting the environment.
Students will be inspired by this youth activist and her courage to speak out.
This article is brief and manageable for students of varying reading levels.
Prerequisites
Students should understand the harm that an oil spill can cause.
Teachers may want to give students some background information on APEN and what their organization does.
Differentiation & Implementation
After reading, students can complete an exit ticket to explain the importance of young people speaking up.
Teachers can highlight the paragraph where Ally talks about feeling angry and explain how feeling angry is normal, and it can help to channel that anger into something like civic action. Teachers can also work this into a bigger conversation about climate emotions.
Speech teachers can use this resource to talk about fear associated with public speaking and point to how this speaker overcame their fear by talking about something important to them.
For another example of how the oil and gas industry has had environmental impacts, teachers can check out this article.
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All resources can be used for your educational purposes with proper attribution to the content provider.
