At a young age, Mena came to enjoy and appreciate the colourful and inspiring nature. She still admires the large natural recreational park in front of her house, but the recent negative developments have not left her unscathed, one of the biggest global challenges in the coming years. That’s why she appreciates the opportunity to be actively involved in the MYBLUEPLANET Climate School programme, which aims to provide young future leaders with practical and experience-oriented education on climate protection. Her rucksack is filled with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the ZHAW, project management experience in various sectors and is rounded off by the CAS «value-oriented product management».

Ilona loves to be out in nature, especially the mountains fascinate her very much. During her geography studies at the University of Zurich, Ilona learned a lot about the connections between natural processes and human activities. In the process, she was repeatedly confronted with the global effects of climate change and studied the topic in depth. Ilona gained her first experience in environmental education during an internship in the Swiss National Park. In her master’s thesis she dealt with the effects of the climate strike movement on the environmental awareness and behavior of young people in Zurich. Ilona also completed her teaching diploma for Matura schools and has been teaching at various high schools for the past two years. Ilona accompanies the Climate School Team as project manager since June 2022.

How do children develop an awareness of their environment?
For several years, Dietmar has been bringing the topics of energy+climate and waste+consumption into classrooms as an environmental teacher for Pusch. In parallel, he continues to develop educational activities in the climate school team. Didactically, his experience from several years of leading Technorama workshops as well as slam lectures helps him. From a technical point of view, the physicist with a doctorate in solar cells has a broad background. For him, it is important to reach the minds and the hearts.

After her basic training as a businesswoman, Ronja specialized in the areas of events, marketing and communication. Regardless of the industry, sustainability and ecological aspects were always at the forefront of event planning and projects. Working as a communication planner in climate protection opens up an optimal working environment for her.

After successfully completing his studies in communication and media sciences at the University of Zurich, Chris worked for a marketing and consulting agency as a project manager for several years. After a break and a six-month backpacking trip through Europe, he was looking for a new challenge and decided to join forces with the MYBLUEPLANET association to fight the looming climate crisis. His main focus in the association lies in the areas of communication and crowdfunding, which he actively tries to support with his know-how. Besides the topic of environmental protection, Chris is particularly enthusiastic about the sea, surfing, hiking and tennis.

After her Bachelor’s degree in International Management at the ZHAW in Winterthur, Angela worked for a long time in the education sector designing international continuing education modules. In 2015, she decided to travel to Africa and Southeast Asia. Far from Western society, she was directly confronted with the consequences of climate change and the overuse of natural resources. These experiences encouraged Angela to use her business background to advocate for nature and sustainability. She completed an agricultural internship on an organic farm in Seuzach. Before starting as a Climate School Program Manager, she worked for a Swiss foundation implementing sustainable agricultural projects in Côte d’Ivoire.

Thomas Fedrizzi completed an apprenticeship as a civil engineer and draftsman, obtained the Matura on the second educational path KME to become a teacher, performed various activities and foreign assignments in plant construction and development cooperation; completed an ETH degree in cultural and environmental engineering, was managing director in a solar company, completed a postgraduate degree in corporate finance; is chief financial officer in Swiss SMEs. Thomas Fedrizzi is the initiator and co-founder of the ECC project – from which the Climate School program emerged – and continues to work on a dedicated volunteer basis as a mentor and coach in the project team.