Teenager Honored for Environmental Activism

A Compton teenager who formed a school environmental group and organized other campaigns is among 10 U.S. high school students honored for their exemplary service to their communities.

Xiomara Cornejo, 18, a senior at Compton High School, and the other teenagers received the Yoshiyama Awards on Monday in Washington, said Jeff Rosenberg, spokesman for the Hitachi Foundation.

The Yoshiyama Awards, which carry a $5,000 grant, are presented to high school seniors who go beyond volunteerism and community service, said Hitachi Foundation President Barbara Dyer. The recipients must also show creativeness when it comes to solving community problems and willingness to take leadership roles.

As a freshman, Cornejo got her school to approve of its first environmental club, the Environmental Junkies, Dyer said. She later helped organize a letter-writing campaign to oppose construction of a freeway through Mayan territory in Belize.

After learning that a Colombian tribe was being forced by an oil company to sell its land, Cornejo organized a rally, Dyer said. And in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch, Cornejo organized a dance to collect money for victims of the storm in Central America.

Teenagers too often are perceived as troublesome or violent, Dyer said. But Cornejo “and the other Yoshiyama recipients are young, they’re heroes, and they should give us all hope.”