Congratulations to the Green Foothills Leadership Program 2024 participants, who graduated on August 17. We are excited to announce that applications for 2025 are now open! Application forms are available in English and Spanish on the Leadership Program web page.

Each participant in this year’s class of 19 graduates used what they learned in the Leadership Program to design a capstone project focusing on environmental justice and/or conservation. Participants worked individually or in small groups, and the projects were presented at graduation. This year’s topics included:

• A Glass-Free Beach
• Agricultural Education in California Schools
• Building a More Resilient East Palo Alto
• Clean Air for the Bay: Lowering Carbon Emissions
• Empower the Voters: San Benito County Ballot Initiative
• Planting Trees in Gilroy
• Preserving the Existing Green Space in Mountain View’s Cuesta Park
• San Jose Community Food Forest
• Trap-Neuter-Release for a San Jose Cat Colony

To learn more about the 19 graduates, see their biographies on our alumni web page.

Please help us spread the word about next year’s program. It meets one Saturday per month from January through August, and is open to anyone who lives, works, or attends school in San Mateo, Santa Clara, or San Benito Counties, and who wants to learn how to create and lead effective campaigns for conservation and environmental justice. The training is presented in both English and Spanish. Apply at greenfoothills.org/lead.

Tuition for the Green Foothills Leadership Program is free of charge, thanks to support from our generous donors: Applied Materials Foundation Community Fund, the County of Santa Clara, North Santa Clara Resource Conservation District (NSCRCD), Sand Hill Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Network’s California Wildlife Program, and Green Foothills donors.