"Youth Resilience Leaders" workshops and mentorship program @ SMCM

Youth Resilience Leaders invites high school students from Southern Maryland to participate in a series of three Saturday workshops and a mentorship program at St. Mary's College of Maryland, offered through the Department of Environmental Studies. Workshops will be free of charge for students including lunches at the campus center, and will be coordinated, instructed and chaperoned by SMCM faculty and undergraduate student interns. High school students of any grade are welcome to apply.

• Location: Blackistone Room, 47407 Old State House Rd, St Marys City, MD 20686
• Dates: Oct 18, Nov 22, and Dec 6, 2025
• Duration: 3 days (Saturdays) + continued mentorship in Spring 2026
• Time: 9 am – 3 pm
• Lunch: Provided
• Cost: Free    
• Students: ~15 high school students
• Assistants: 4 SMCM ENST students
• Application Deadline: October 15, 2025
• Send questions to Parisa N. Rinaldi: pnrinaldi@smcm.edu 

Youth Resilience Leaders is a program focused on developing capabilities for positive change through engaging study, discussion and hands-on activities. Each workshop is designed to help students share and deepen knowledge about their region, fostering inquiry into local issues and helping them identify research interests related to their communities. Workshops will explore community mapping, media literacy, dialogue and collaborative inquiry around climate impacts and resilience. The workshops culminate in students outlining small action-research projects they plan to pursue, which they may then develop through mentorship in the spring. Learning outcomes include effective communication; understanding themes of climate impacts and dimensions of resilience; project design and execution; collaborating in a group setting with peers; and developing the necessary capabilities to become actors for positive change.