YouthCARES: Empowering Students to Tackle the Climate Crisis 

April 14, 2025

The YouthCARES project in the UC Irvine School of Education has been awarded the 2025 NNERPP Youth Voice 4 RPPs Award by the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships, receiving a $7,500 grant to support the project. 

Led by PI Hosun Kang, associate professor, and co-PI Nelly Tsai, research specialist, YouthCARES is a new research-practice partnership that brings together high school and undergraduate students, educators, and researchers to co-design climate justice curriculum and promote civic action. The goal: to empower students to critically engage with climate change and environmental injustice while driving collective action toward a more just and sustainable future. Other contributors to the project include:

• Minjung Shin, graduate student researcher & YouthCARES mentor  
• Kirandeep Kaur Gill, undergraduate student researcher & YouthCARES mentor
• Rachel Kim, CalTeach preservice teacher & YouthCARES mentor
• Ethan Lin at NYU: undergraduate student researcher & YouthCARES mentor
• Mahba Ahmad at Irvine Valley Community College, undergraduate student researcher & YouthCARES mentor

With young people identifying climate change as one of their greatest concerns, this project addresses a key gap in public education—how to equip students with the knowledge and tools to take system-level action. YouthCARES explores how collaborative, transdisciplinary learning can amplify youth voices and advance the role of education in the climate justice movement.