The Green 15: Santa Barbara County Students, Educators Recognized as Environmental Champions

“Sustainable.” “Green.” “Environmentally friendly.”

The words get used a lot. At Explore Ecology’s Environmental Stewardship Awards on Thursday at Cabrillo Pavilion, the focus was on what those words actually mean in action.

The awards — part of a program dating back to 2016 — recognized 15 students, teachers, and school programs across Santa Barbara County.

Kicking off the luncheon, 2025 awardee and Dos Pueblos High School student Jackson Simmons-Furlati spoke about his hydroponic towers, which have produced more than 7,000 meals while saving 37,000 gallons of water. Simmons-Furlati is also part of a United Nations–accredited, student-led group raising awareness about the harms of single-use plastics. Who are unsurprisingly not at these group forums, he notes, are the corporations producing these plastics.

“The system is still the system, and we need policy that’s strong enough to change it. But that’s not where we’re at right now,” he said. Instead, he suggested, “we can build smaller systems … and invite others to join them.”

The takeaway: If enough small systems are built outside the larger system causing harm, the larger system can eventually be forced to change. Explore Ecology’s Executive Director Lindsay Johnson went on to introduce 15 examples of such small systems. 

First were the event’s smallest — but mighty — awardees: a K-1 group from Carpinteria’s Canalino Elementary known as the Planet Protectors, who clean up their campus each week. They even arrived early to the venue to do a beach cleanup. 

Asked how that went: “A lot of trash, cool fish things,” said student Enzo. His favorite part: “picking up trash.” Reese, another student who
could not quite reach the microphone, put it simply as “helping the ‘erf.’”

At the Cabrillo High School Aquarium in Lompoc, it’s the same philosophy, just taller students. What began as a single tank is now a 5,000-square-foot, student-run aquarium with more than 25 exhibits, roughly 200 students involved, and about 10,000 annual visitors, according to aquarium director Greg Eisen.

“Our motto is partnership with the Earth, and we would just love to further work and to bring positive change,” said Dilraj Nagra, a student and head curator.

Also in Lompoc, at Just for Kids Preschool, teachers Juana Zarate, Silvia Hernandez, and Rosa Herrera have built garden-based learning into their classrooms, getting students to care for plants and engage with nature early.

Jacob Pepper of Santa Barbara’s Anacapa School has a similar approach with his middle schoolers. “Raise your hand if you are in a relationship,” he said to the crowd. “You actually are — with Earth.” Pepper is working with students to cut campus waste by 30 percent, which translates to “what a family of four would have on a consistent basis.”

At Brandon Elementary School in Goleta, 5th-grade teacher Lisa Lisle’s goal was to keep plastic utensils out of the trash cans entirely by replacing them with reusable sporks. Brandon Elementary’s principal dubbed the Star Wars–inspired campaign “May the Sporks Stay with You.”

Lisle’s incorporation of environmental education and action had been a long-time goal. She pulled out a binder from 1998 — her master’s thesis titled “How Do I Fuse Environmental Education into the Classroom?” — and ended her speech with a thank-you to the audience, noting that “I am able to do this every day.”

Dr. Bree Valla, who could not make it, is principal of Vista del Mar Union School District in Gaviota and is guiding the district’s transition to the Vista Institute of Environmental Studies.

At Midland School, teacher Isabella Marill is building a campus-wide environmental plan. But before she starts with that, she works with her students to “connect and love the environment first before we start talking about protecting it,” she said. At Midland — a 3,000-acre campus in Los Olivos bordering Los Padres National Forest — Marill has set up an environmental club, conducted an environmental audit, and is formalizing an environmental stewardship plan.

Marill also shares the award with her students, both figuratively and literally, as one of her own, River Peace, also earned an award. Peace, a senior at Midland, has spent his time there transitioning the school farm to climate-resilient, perennial native plant species.

“Thank you to Bella,” he said, referring to Marill, “who taught me chemistry and biology and gave me so many opportunities,” pointing to his Cal Poly sweatshirt, where he will attend next year.

At another high school, Santa Barbara High student Jade Garcia organized the “Make Polluters Pay” walkout. “I hold onto the comfort that we are making a change for my future and the generations to come,” she said.

Sophie and Hunter — a brother-sister duo described as “school garden dynamos” — were also recognized. “I like to mulch and weed and also pick vegetables,” said Hunter Costa of Santa Barbara’s La Colina Junior High. “I think it’s nice to know I am making a change,” said his sister Sophie of Monte Vista Elementary.

Then there was 4th grader West Lang, wise beyond his years, who handled a swarm of bees after recess at Santa Ynez Valley Charter School, safely relocating them with the help of his father, Jason. “Being in nature is a great reset to your mind and body,” he said.

Leise Thomason, a science specialist at Santa Barbara Charter School, has taken action in a multitude of ways — gardens, composting, and a mini reuse station inspired by Art from Scrap — and, as she put it, “brought props” as examples.

Her advice to the audience: “Have gratitude … love the planet and love what you do. The environmental movement has many needs, and we all have our own strengths.”

The 15 awardees were evidence of that — bringing meaning to the word “environmental steward.”