Youth STEM 2030 Founder Becomes National Geographic Young Explorer
Youth STEM 2030 Founder, Mhairi McCann, is one of 25 young changemakers globally to have been named by National Geographic as a Young Explorer.
The accolade sees Youth STEM 2030 receive funding and support from National Geographic, enabling us to advance our mission of empowering young people to tackle the world’s biggest challenges using STEM. Announced last month, the 2021 cohort of Young Explorers represent 19 countries, selected for their commitment and transformative approaches to building a sustainable and thriving planet for generations to come.
Since launching just days before the UK went into lockdown in March 2020, Youth STEM 2030 has grown, with over 1,200 young people based in 80+ countries globally applying for a place on its programmes, and over 1,100 youth attending Youth STEM 2030 events. With demand for our existing programmes Youth STEM Matters - a youth-led scientific journal - and the entirely youth-created annual Youth STEM Summit showing the energy of young people for making a difference, Mhairi’s National Geographic Young Explorer funding will be used to develop and pilot a brand new Youth STEM 2030 project, Youth STEM Changemakers.
On being named a National Geographic Young Explorer, Mhairi said:
“I’m really thrilled to become a National Geographic Young Explorer, especially alongside such an incredible group of young people. The news still feels very surreal, and is made all the more special by being the first Young Explorer from Scotland.”
Youth STEM Changemakers will provide youth with a programme of learning about the world’s most pressing issues, skills & personal development, and solution creation; ultimately, young people gain the skills and tools they need to innovate meaningful STEM-based solutions to real-world problems.
Mhairi hopes that she can use the opportunity to empower more young people to find the issues they care about and take action:
“When I was growing up, I didn’t really realise I could make a difference, so I hope that I can show other young people that they can also drive change to create a better world. I can’t wait to work alongside incredible young leaders, and continue empowering youth as changemakers in STEM at Youth STEM 2030 with the support of National Geographic.”
National Geographic’s support has come at an exciting time for us, as we ended 2021 by welcoming our first member of staff in December, took to the stage at COP26, and were accepted into The Lloyds Bank Social Entrepreneurs Trade Up Programme, in partnership with the School for Social Entrepreneurs, and jointly funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.
There’s definitely exciting times ahead for Youth STEM 2030, and we also want to give a big shoutout to 2 members of our community - Angela Busheska who shared her story at our Youth STEM Summit and STEM for Climate Action Research Conference, and Prashant Mohesh, who was part of our COP26 video - both are also part of the incredible group of 25 youth from 19 countries named National Geographic Young Explorers!
Meet all of the incredible young people selected as 2021 National Geographic Young Explorers in the Young Explorer StoryMap.
