Profile: Gabrielle Sampaio

I’m a student who is interested in the environment and helping stop climate change. Aside from science, I enjoy reading and learning about different animals. I’m always looking for new ways to recycle and save energy! Passionate, driven, and creative are words that describe me.

I wanted to join FXB Climate Advocates because I want to learn how to advocate for out planet. People in Ecuador are not aware of the damage climate change is doing, so I would like to understand what is really happening and how to be heard. I would implement the skills I learn in FXB Climate Advocates in my school first, and then Ecuador's entirety. The skills I will learn from this internship is not something I can learn in school, and I am highly passionate about climate and making a change to help our earth, so I think this program perfectly matches my interests.

I live in a gated community where there are a lot of roads, so people tend to litter. As a project, my brother and I decided to pick up trash in order to clean our community. My thought process towards this was me being anxious about different animals mistaking this as food and choking. There are a lot of pets around my neighborhood, so I want to make sure they are all safe. Throughout this project, my brother and I picked up different wrappers, glass shards and bottles. All of these things are choking hazards and dangerous, especially since kids live in my neighborhood. This project was extremely rewarding because I got to help my community, even if it was a small change. Another project we have at home is a recycling bin. This seems like such a small action, but most people don’t have one. We put all sorts of plastic, bottles, and cardboard we do not use anymore. With this, we separate our trash and make sure that we are recycling things that would otherwise go into the ocean and potentially harm sea creatures. Overall, as said before, I want to make sure to continue these projects and a larger scale, starting with my school.

Someone who is working to stop climate change that inspires me is Leonardo DiCaprio. I remember watching a speech given by him about climate change a couple years ago, and it inspired me to be more aware of my surroundings. As a celebrity, I value his work towards making sure everyone is willing to save our planet, as celebrities are highly influential in today’s world. DiCaprio also has a foundation dedicated to supporting conservation projects, which is an area I am passionate about. This summer, I got to be a mentee for an animal conservation professor, and I understood how important it is to make sure different animals do not become extinct. Moreover, DiCaprio has made me realize that I can make a change in my community. I have been trying to brainstorm a foundation I can create within my community to help promote recycling and sustainable consumption (which is why I am joining this program). Overall, DiCaprio is not only an excellent actor, but has helped me realize the damage we are exacerbating by not making a change. I will like to follow Leonardo DiCaprio’s footsteps in terms of his honorable actions within addressing climate change, and become a respectable figure in my community.