The Dear Everything Youth Council is a coalition of young eco-visionaries, artivists, and mother nature champions transmuting the powerful rallying cry of the transformational musical uprising, Dear Everything, into real-world impact and support for youth-led eco-action communities and aid for local ecosystems.
YOUTH COUNCIL LEADER
& V-BOARD REPRESENTATIVE
Maya Penn (she/her) is an award-winning youth climate justice leader and solutionist, founder, history making animator, filmmaker, 3 time TED speaker, author, and V-Day Board member. Starting in 2008 at just 8 years old, Maya has been working in sustainability and climate justice for 17 years at age 25. Through her own nonprofit Maya’s Ideas 4 The Planet founded in 2011, she’s launched humanitarian and environmental justice initiatives in the US, Haiti, Senegal, and Cameroon. Maya is a global changemaker and educator with talks that have been translated into over 100 languages, and books on social and sustainable entrepreneurship that have been used in curriculum in schools around the world. Speaking at Harvard and the United Nations, Maya is certified by Cambridge Business School in Circular Economies and Sustainable Strategies. Through her animation and climate storytelling production company Upenndo! Productions, Maya is creating jobs and storytelling opportunities for next gen artists, and directing an original environmental animated short film titled ASALI: Power of The Pollinators, Executive produced by Viola Davis.
YOUTH CLIMATE COUNCIL
Saiarchana Darira (she/her) is the Co-Executive Director OneUpAction International, where she works to uplift youth to implement climate solutions. She is a graduate from Columbia University’s Climate School, where she received a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science and Policy. As a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum, she works to implement decarbonization projects across New York City to decrease the amount of emissions in the city. She also sits on the U.S. Youth Action Council for United Nations Ocean Decade, where she analyzes the ethical and sustainable behaviors of corporations. Over the past 5 years, she has done various work in the climate space, including doing biodiversity research for NASA, serving a Millennium Fellow for United Nations Academic Impact, and doing climate mental health research with the Global Mental Health Lab. Humanitarian In her free time, she leads climate cafes and implements community mental health programs with the Art of Living.
Jes Vesconte (they/them) is a nonbinary climate justice activist and artist working at the nexus of culture, systems change, and intersectional liberation. They are passionate about engaging art to cultivate community, build coalitions, and catalyze collective action for a thriving world. In addition to being a co-founder of Protopia, a worker-owned impact-driven film collective, Jes has held positions at Future Film Coalition, Good Energy, on Capitol Hill and on political campaigns. Jes holds a BFA from CalArts, an MA from Columbia University’s Climate School, and was a Fulbright Scholar at UdK Berlin, RIFS and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. They are also a member of Committee for the 1st Amendment, and organize at the intersections of environmental justice and Palestinian liberation, abolition of police and prisons, countering fascism, and against ICE.
Keanu Arpels-Josiah (he/him), 20, is a youth climate justice organizer and activist born and raised on Munsee Lenape land in what is called New York City, and currently a college student at Swarthmore College. He’s been a core organizer and the policy co-lead with Fridays For Future NYC, where he’s advocated for action on climate justice and legislation on the local, state, federal, and international governmental levels since high school. In 2023, he was one of the lead organizers of the March To End Fossil Fuels, organizing with a multigenerational intersectional coalition to plan and mobilize for a 75,000-person march in N.Y.C., calling on President Biden to stop expanding and phase out fossil fuels. Currently, he helps coordinate Fridays For Future USA in some campaign areas and works as an advisor to Sunrise Movement NYC’s electoral team. See profiles in the New York Times, POLITICO, Sierra Magazine, and others.
The Dear Everything Youth Council is a coalition of young eco-visionaries, artivists, and mother nature champions transmuting the powerful rallying cry of the transformational musical uprising, Dear Everything, into real-world impact and support for youth-led eco-action communities and aid for local ecosystems.
YOUTH COUNCIL LEADER
& V-BOARD REPRESENTATIVE
Maya Penn (she/her) is an award-winning youth climate justice leader and solutionist, founder, history making animator, filmmaker, 3 time TED speaker, author, and V-Day Board member. Starting in 2008 at just 8 years old, Maya has been working in sustainability and climate justice for 17 years at age 25. Through her own nonprofit Maya’s Ideas 4 The Planet founded in 2011, she’s launched humanitarian and environmental justice initiatives in the US, Haiti, Senegal, and Cameroon. Maya is a global changemaker and educator with talks that have been translated into over 100 languages, and books on social and sustainable entrepreneurship that have been used in curriculum in schools around the world. Speaking at Harvard and the United Nations, Maya is certified by Cambridge Business School in Circular Economies and Sustainable Strategies. Through her animation and climate storytelling production company Upenndo! Productions, Maya is creating jobs and storytelling opportunities for next gen artists, and directing an original environmental animated short film titled ASALI: Power of The Pollinators, Executive produced by Viola Davis.
YOUTH CLIMATE COUNCIL
Saiarchana Darira (she/her) is the Co-Executive Director OneUpAction International, where she works to uplift youth to implement climate solutions. She is a graduate from Columbia University’s Climate School, where she received a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science and Policy. As a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum, she works to implement decarbonization projects across New York City to decrease the amount of emissions in the city. She also sits on the U.S. Youth Action Council for United Nations Ocean Decade, where she analyzes the ethical and sustainable behaviors of corporations. Over the past 5 years, she has done various work in the climate space, including doing biodiversity research for NASA, serving a Millennium Fellow for United Nations Academic Impact, and doing climate mental health research with the Global Mental Health Lab. Humanitarian In her free time, she leads climate cafes and implements community mental health programs with the Art of Living.
Jes Vesconte (they/them) is a nonbinary climate justice activist and artist working at the nexus of culture, systems change, and intersectional liberation. They are passionate about engaging art to cultivate community, build coalitions, and catalyze collective action for a thriving world. In addition to being a co-founder of Protopia, a worker-owned impact-driven film collective, Jes has held positions at Future Film Coalition, Good Energy, on Capitol Hill and on political campaigns. Jes holds a BFA from CalArts, an MA from Columbia University’s Climate School, and was a Fulbright Scholar at UdK Berlin, RIFS and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. They are also a member of Committee for the 1st Amendment, and organize at the intersections of environmental justice and Palestinian liberation, abolition of police and prisons, countering fascism, and against ICE.
Keanu Arpels-Josiah (he/him), 20, is a youth climate justice organizer and activist born and raised on Munsee Lenape land in what is called New York City, and currently a college student at Swarthmore College. He’s been a core organizer and the policy co-lead with Fridays For Future NYC, where he’s advocated for action on climate justice and legislation on the local, state, federal, and international governmental levels since high school. In 2023, he was one of the lead organizers of the March To End Fossil Fuels, organizing with a multigenerational intersectional coalition to plan and mobilize for a 75,000-person march in N.Y.C., calling on President Biden to stop expanding and phase out fossil fuels. Currently, he helps coordinate Fridays For Future USA in some campaign areas and works as an advisor to Sunrise Movement NYC’s electoral team. See profiles in the New York Times, POLITICO, Sierra Magazine, and others.