Check In from the Cupertino Team: Gwyn Azar, Elise Chiu, and Sarah Liu

Hello! We are Gwyn Azar, Elise Chiu, and Sarah Liu, co-leads of the Cupertino team. The SVYCA holiday party was a celebration of our successes from this year. Our team celebrated winning the Cupertino sustainability CREST award this year, being a stakeholder at Cupertino climate action plan meetings and workshops, and reaching so many youth by growing the team.

We all had a wonderful time catching up with old friends, meeting members from different cities, and mingling with officials. 

At the start of the party, State Senator Josh Becker and State Senator Dave Cortese gave speeches on climate change in city policies and education, and inspired every student to continue combating climate change through the youth voice. Afterward, co-leads of each team stepped up to the podium to give short speeches including their teams’ successes as well as a reflection of their experience as team leaders. Each speech was inspiring and impactful, and hearing each team’s accomplishments and future aspirations let us realize just how much SVYCA as a whole has achieved. We are so incredibly proud of every team for furthering SVYCA’s goal of fighting climate change and we are excited to see what each individual team will continue to accomplish. After all our speakers were finished, we ate dinner, took photos, and mingled. After meeting on Zoom for more than a year, we were ecstatic to be able to chat with other members in-person and take some overdue selfies together. We were so impressed with how organized the party was and would like to thank the SVYCA members who organized this fun holiday gathering. Overall, the experience was definitely a memorable one and we cannot wait to continue making more climate accomplishments!