Interview with Ania Wright
Ania Wright is a dedicated climate activist, organizer, and leader. She has worked hard on the climate movement over the last few years, dedicating her time and energy to not only learning about the climate crisis, but also representing and leading other youth climate activists.
Ania started her environmental work at Falmouth High School, where she led her school’s Eco Team, school-wide recycling projects, and other environmental events. After graduating high school, she attended College of the Atlantic where she became more involved in climate organizing at a statewide level. Her activism soon developed into a greater passion of hers as she began to attend national and even international conferences on climate change and environmental disasters.
After Ania’s international climate organizing experiences, she decided to head back to Maine and help with statewide and local climate campaigns. This is when she became more interested in organizations doing this work such as the MEEA Changemakers and Maine Youth for Climate Justice.
Ania initially heard of MEEA Changemakers while looking into environmental work in Maine. Through her friend, she started looking into the organization and became more interested through her participation in the Changemakers Facebook Group. She eventually applied for the Changemakers fellowship in 2019 and was awarded the position which she believes jump started her career in climate organizing in Maine. Around the same time, she also got involved with similar climate change groups like Maine Youth Climate for Justice and the Maine Climate Council. All of these groups supported Ania in continuing her environmental work at a local level and also taught her valuable lessons and skills.
Through the Changemakers network, Ania has developed in not only her activism, but also personally. It was during her time as a fellow that she realized how important her voice is in the climate movement and how critical it is for her to speak her mind. Her mentors and leaders helped her understand that she has power in the climate space and that she needs to use that power to represent youth opinions and ideas. In addition to helping Ania find and use her voice, Changemakers has also helped her develop skills that have assisted in propelling her to where she is today. With the help of the program, she became much more confident in her public speaking skills and ability to voice her thoughts and feelings.
To Ania, the Changemakers network helped her grow tremendously because it created a very fun and comfortable space despite the fact that many of her experiences with the network were virtual due to the pandemic. She immediately felt welcomed into the community and formed lasting relationships, despite the restrictrictions of connecting virtually. In addition to the comfort and open arms MEEA Changemakers provided, Ania felt as though the space was very innovative and gave her the ability to work well with others. She thinks Changemakers has a very unique model of work that includes things like sharing the group agreements at the beginning of each meeting and giving time and space to get grounded in the work. These practices have positively impacted Ania and helped to foster a safe space where she can be authentic in a wonderful community of people and friends with similar goals and mindsets.
While her fellowship with Changemakers has come to an end, Ania hopes to remain working with the network informally. She envisions Changemakers growing to be a more well-known group in the climate space. She believes the climate movement in Maine is growing and that Changemakers has a model that allows the movement to grow in a sustainable way. She hopes to see more leaders cultivated in theChangemakers network and is extremely excited to see where MEEA will bring the Changemakers network and what directions it will go in.
