When I was a child, my parents were part of a community-led fight in the town of Adjuntas to stop mining in the central region of Puerto Rico. Because of that work, I realized that I couldn't take all the beautiful things that we have on this island for granted. So I started volunteering with the Sierra Student Coalition when I was in eighth grade. The goal of the student coalition is to get youths involved with the Sierra Club and also give them tools to create their own campaigns. I participated in a summer program that trained youths on how to talk to the media and how to lobby and all those basic grassroots tactics. After that, I started to get involved in our local chapter, which had just started the year before. The chapter's conservation campaign was geared toward protecting a stretch of land called the Northeast Ecological Corridor, near El Yunque National Forest. There was a proposal to create a big hotel and luxury condos in the area, but that stretch of land is a critical habitat for the leatherback sea turtle. This was the first campaign that the Sierra Club supported here in Puerto Rico.
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