Florencia Gonzalez is a Bachelor student in Environment and Renewable Energy at the Siglo 21 University. She is a  graduate of “Colegio Universitario Patagónico” high school with a specific title in Renewable Energy; as part of her academic activities she has visited several wind parks, hydroelectric complexes, agro-industry companies and natural reserves.  

At the age of 17, she was selected to travel abroad with a full scholarship provided by the US Department of State through the Youth Ambassadors Program in Argentina. She spent most of the program in Seattle where she could learn and see face to face all the things she was learning in high school. She visited eco-friendly places, understood the importance of reduction, reuse and recycle and experienced how people worked with technology, renewable energies and hydroponic gardens.

In 2017, she created a project called “IVY”. The idea was to raise awareness about the importance of the oceans between young people; this successful activity led her to gather a group of young men and women to clean some beaches of the Comodoro Rivadavia city that were polluted. In 2018, she co-created a project called “GRAFTEC” a new solar panel technology using a material called Graphene, that won the 1st place in the National Science Fair. Nowadays, they are still working on the investigation project to find out the correct development of the panel in order to give a solution for people in need of electricity.

Last year, she participated in the -COY15 Argentina- a conference of youth from all over Argentina. She took training in order to find solutions to reduce climate change observing what is going on in an international level and trying to find solutions for local communities. She spends her free time learning about climate change through webinars, courses, virtual meetings and conferences, TED talks and documentaries.

Florencia strongly believes that small things proceed that which is great. She is certain that the youth have the power to change the planet for good and through environmental education and actions a sustainable future can be built.

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OceanEcho 30x30 Fellowship Campaign Update:

To mobilize public support for OceanEcho 30x30 in Argentina I've started working with youth from the south and moving to different provinces of the country. To raise awareness about our ocean we used digital tools and social media: sharing information and facts. We also had our first informative meet up via Zoom in which we talked about the impact of the human activities in our ocean and the different ways to take action. We had international guests (my fellow partners) who talked about their campaigns in their countries. We invited people from different provinces through email, social media, WhatsApp and the local radio from Comodoro Rivadavia, Chubut. Today, we are encouraging people to participate in the picture challenge so they can share their 30x30 pictures and experiences with the ocean.

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