Louisa, VA

Brayden Jones is a 16-year-old high school sophomore who lives in Louisa, Virginia. In 2020, Brayden was awarded the Louisa County Middle School Assistant Principal Award. Brayden also serves as a 4-H Youth Horse Ambassador with the Virginia 4-H, where he presents to peers across Virginia on the educational 4-H curriculum, works with peers to organize horse show events, and volunteers to help with 4-H Community events. 

At a young age, Brayden was diagnosed with Mild Ataxic Cerebral Palsy, Sensorineural Hearing Loss and a vision condition called Duane’s Syndrome. He didn’t learn to walk until he was two and a half, and then had to wear leg braces as a young child. Brayden was in Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy for years. Navigating challenges is not new to Brayden, who brings his trademark optimism to the challenges facing our planet today. Brayden is passionate about being a part of the solution to help create change and inspire his peers to take an active role in protecting our planet.

Brayden is an aspiring Meteorologist, in college his goal is to study the impacts of climate change on the weather. Currently, he leads two weather focused pages on Facebook called Mid-Atlantic Stormcaster that reports on the weather in the mid-atlantic region within the US and United States Tropic-Watcher that reports on all tropical weather activities that may impact the US.

As a self-proclaimed news junkie, when not watching the news, Brayden is always outdoors either spending time with his horses, dogs, woodworking, biking or photographing nature and horses.