Congratulations to the Green Foothills Leadership Program 2025 participants, who graduated on August 10. Each participant in this year’s class of 22 local changemakers used what they learned in the Leadership Program to design a capstone project focused on environmental justice and/or conservation. They worked individually or in small groups, and the projects were presented at graduation.

This year’s capstone project topics included:

• A farmer’s market for North Fair Oaks
• Access to nature for youth in North Fair Oaks and East Palo Alto
• Connecting Chinese speakers to nature through birding
• Expanding access to outdoor recreation in Mountain View
• Sustainable last-mile transportation to Levi’s Stadium for the 2026 FIFA World Cup
• Ecological restoration of Saratoga Creek
• Increasing green cover in low-income neighborhoods in San Jose
• Outdoor education in Coyote Valley
• Eliminating artificial turf
• Convincing the Brisbane City Council to vote against a redevelopment project at Guadalupe Quarry
• Project to reduce litter

The graduates joined the Leadership Program in January and spent eight months learning to lead effective and inclusive environmental advocacy campaigns, advance initiatives for environmental justice and conservation, and prepare to step into leadership roles at nonprofits, public agencies, and community-based groups.

Congratulations to all! We look forward to seeing the changes they’ll achieve and the contributions they’ll make in their communities going forward.

Tuition for the Green Foothills Leadership Program in 2025 was 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, Stanford University, and Green Foothills donors.