Interviewed by Adrianna Freeman, Communications & Operations Manager for The HEAL Project
This summer The HEAL Project camps had a guest presenter, that being Ms. Sophia Quin! Sophia is a 16 year old bay area High School student that has gone above and beyond in terms of environmental advocacy. The HEAL Project's Theory of Change includes our vision for our program participants to become Engaged Citizens, Sophia walked me through what sparked her environmental passion, how she got the ideas for her multiple passion projects, and how she plans to continue to educate those around her. Please enjoy as you dive into her success as an author, nonprofit founder, app game producer, and most importantly, environmental advocate!
Adrianna - Let’s start with a bit about your background. Tell me about yourself.
Sophia - “My name is Sophia and I am a Junior at Aragon High School in the Bay Area. I am 16 years old and one of my main interests is writing. I love to write, and this started early on during the transition from 5th to 6th grade. Our language arts teacher gave an assignment to write a short story and present it to the class. This is when I found out about creative writing, and when I really delved deeper into the hobby. I started exploring poetry, short stories, novel writing, and really began to fall in love with it. This went on for a while, and during this time I also submitted some of my pieces to the Scholastic Art & writing awards. Here I was able to win some regional awards, and it was really neat that other people were appreciative & willing to share my work with others. When I entered HS we had a journalism team, so I decided to try something new, and joined as a News Staffer. Currently, I continue to serve as a News Editor. That is more about my writing background, and I view writing as a very powerful medium to inspire and compel others. I use that to educate the public on issues that I really care about, which is specifically environmental issues, a segue to my other passion. That being said, I love the environment, and I do a lot of work advocating for planetary health.
Besides these two passions which I have merged together, I am also a very avid lover of history, I also love baking during free time over the weekends. I search recipes up and bake treats for family and friends. Spending time with family as well, I have a chihuahua as well, I love animals!”
Adrianna - Please share how you became involved with matters of environmental stewardship.
Sophia - “Since a young age, I have been exposed to this type of stuff. We had occasional guest speakers come in talking about the importance of saving water, and various other speeches or presentations regarding environmental issues. I feel like this never really stuck to me (as opposed to subjects such as history/math), where you are learning this in daily classes, whereas environmental education is not very systematic, and it is not in our actual school curriculum. So, in 6th grade I came across an article regarding global warming. This featured a polar bear standing on its last bit of ice habit. This was very sad and appalling to me as I love animals. I think this was the actual turning point where I suddenly opened my eyes to the outside world & realized what was happening. As opposed to previously, when I heard the guest speakers, it never really stuck to me. That article really shocked me and ever since then (this was 6th grade), I started trying to become an eco-friendlier citizen, in hopes of those poor polar bears and other animals not suffering as much. At the same time, I was looking at my peers & friends to see if they were doing the same thing… and the answer is no. At lunch time, I would see trash being thrown on the ground, littering, not knowing what trash to recycle in which bin, and leaving around piles of food waste.
That is when I thought that something needed to be done about this, but also, I was doubtful as to whether I had the capabilities of being a prominent voice. I was not really the outspoken one in class; I was scared to speak up. This went on for about 2 or 3 years until I entered high school. Regarding my past mention of joining journalism and becoming a part of the News Staff, I believe that really trained me and made me get out of my comfort zone. I realized my potential of how I can grow and become more outspoken, through the interviews I conducted. This is when I really decided to go for it, and become the person that advocates for environmental protection. I think that if I did not do it, no one else would step up to do it. So anyways, that is why I decided to write the book & start this nonprofit organization. That is how it all got rolling!”
Adrianna – Can you expand on the book you wrote & nonprofit you created?
Sophia – “Sure! So, I founded my own non-profit organization which is called Light Earth’s Destiny, in short it is called L-E-D (LED). We do many projects around environmental education, such as compelling other youth in our community to join us to protect the environment in ways that they can contribute to, and educating them overall. I also wrote my own book, this being called Becoming Earth 2.0, it is an educational science fiction book mainly dedicated to elementary and middle schoolers (although all readers of all ages and backgrounds are welcome to explore it).”
Adrianna – Could you tell me more about projects within your non-profit?
Sophia - “Sure! We have quite a few projects right now, one specifically I am very excited about is called Saving Earth 2.0, and I am sure you can guess it is connected to my book. We have really talented tech app developers here at our organization. Over the summer they have worked very hard to develop this app game based on my book. Basically, (not getting too specific) there are a lot of mini games in the app, the player's goal is to save this dying planet as it experiences many environmental issues. Throughout each mini game they are supposed to solve obstacles such as plastic pollution, the wildfires going on across the planet, etc., and during their time on the planet, the players learn more about how we can be change-makers, and be that person that addresses/ tackles these issues. Therefore, we created this app game, and it actually launched very recently! It is developed for Apple & Android users, as we hope to make it accessible to everyone. We plan to distribute it to museums/other places that take in these app games & make it be seen in the public! You can access the app here.”
Adrianna – Can you tell me more about the book you wrote - what inspired this and how it came together?
Sophia – “The book was in my sophomore year of high school. There was this long period of time between then and 6th grade where I was hesitating on being the one to go out there and be the leader. I was definitely since 6th grade adopting more eco-friendly practices & further educating myself, but I was still not sure if I could be the one leading.
In 9th grade I was more focused on growing myself, I went to a few environmental science research programs to be more knowledgeable in that area. This was to expand my knowledge before I took on exciting yet also ambitious projects.
Elaborating further, when I really decided to take action, I was thinking how could I contribute? I felt I was pretty strong in writing, and felt I could accomplish a whole book. I think books are a very, very entertaining resource for kids. This is because other resources we have on climate change and global warming etc., are just long articles & research etc., that are not very exciting for kids. This is why I find books to be an ideal way to get kids started at a young age. Kids are our future generation, these are the people that are going to grow up and make decisions, all of our behavior and choices directly impact earth's well-being. So, I think it is very important that at a young age we start having this coexistence with nature, no matter what we are doing. This is why I think environmental education is so, so important, on a note in addition to beach clean ups/planting trees.”
Cover of Becoming Earth 2.0, written by Sophia Qin & Illustrated by Lily Fang
Adrianna - What is the book's overall concept/summary?
Sophia – “Becoming Earth 2.0 actually takes place in the future, in 2100. A team of top international climate scientists gather in an international laboratory. They have already helped our Earth transition into an eco-friendlier lifestyle. They are now helping a faraway alien planet called 2.0 with their battle in climate change. It is this whole journey where Karina, the earth scientist, is building trust with the aliens through communicating back and forth and introducing them to sustainable solutions. These solutions are so neat to me considering they are extremely futuristic and advanced.
I also want to mention that my main character Karina, is pretty special, in that she was born in 2047, so you may think she is already 50 but she is only about 28 or 27 in my story, due to her having gone through suspended animation. This is another futuristic thing, where climate change got so bad where the younger generation in my book had to be put to sleep in a way and wait until the world leaders and older generations solved those issues and restored the health on earth and it became safe enough for kids to come back to live again.”
Adrianna - Did you create a timeline or plan for the book? Please tell me about that if so.
Sophia – “I took about 1 month brainstorming how the story plot and how all the characters would come together. That was because I had several goals in mind, the first and most obvious one was environmental education, and teaching kids about envenomed issues. But I also wanted to represent underrepresented voices, diverse backgrounds, and emphasize the need for global cooperation when we come together to battle climate change. Also, encouraging gender equality in the workforce. All of these together, it took me a long time to figure out how I was going to go about the story.
Now that you have a summary of it, “Earth” is the positive and hopeful outlook of our future, so I really want to give readers the motivation that as long as we try enough, we can reach that beautiful and green future that I imagine in 2100. But again, because I wanted to incorporate all of these environmental issues, 2.0 was the reflection of what would happen if we continue going down this unsustainable pathway. Sort of the warning to readers that we can’t follow this pathway anymore, it is going to lead to a lot of dangerous consequences.
Third, I wanted to praise the work of current scientists who are our heroes, coming up with all of these futuristic solutions, such as in my book I mention renewable energy, biodegradable plastic, plastic eating mealworms, lab grown meat, vertical gardens, floating cities, desalination equipment that can make salty ocean water into drinkable water. A lot of these neat solutions out there making these kids excited for a hopeful and optimistic future.``
Continuing on book’s timeline –
Sophia - “Yes, I did have a timeline planned, as I prefer to keep track of everything I do & set deadlines for myself, in hopes of keeping pace & publishing the book when I wanted to. So, I went about this by setting deadlines for each chapter (after having a general idea of topics), and then I basically just went for it. I wrote a draft, no matter how rough it was, and then I asked a lot of friends from middle school/even elementary school, as they are going to be my main audience so I was wanting their feedback. After doing that, I revised my draft and sent it out again to them to read it and revise, back and forth for. Along time. I did actually calculate a rough draft of how long this took me, it was about 6 months of work and almost 300 hours of writing and eventual publishing of the book.
I also want to mention that the book has illustrations, created by my cousin Lily Lanqing Fang. Lily is responsible for the book cover and all drawings included, huge thank you to her. We are super close, so I planned deadlines for the both of us, for example as I finished a chapter, I would ask that she finish the drawing for that section. The eventual publishing through Amazon was super nice as it allows authors such as us to self-publish via Amazon. I additionally had a narrator, James Simenc, who is super talented and has given me immense support along the way. It is also available via kindle, and paper books (b&w as well as color).”
Air Pollution Illustration from Becoming Earth 2.0, drawn by Lily Fang
Adrianna - What was challenging about putting this book together? What resources did you lean on?
Sophia – “I am pretty lucky in that I had some experience with writing beforehand, due to this being a hobby of mine already. I am very lucky in that I went in expecting it to be tiring 7 exhausting to write a whole book. But what was very new and challenging to me, was researching all of these topics. I cover a lot of env issues from air pollution, plastic pollution, wildfires, etc., and I wanted to make sure I was presenting the right info, and that all the facts are right. So, I did a lot of fact checking, leaned on google as my best friend, and really read a lot of research papers & articles from credible sources online. I also included an Appendix and Reference at the end to give readers additional information, and cite my sources. Also, since my future is set in 2100, I obviously can’t predict the future so I would type in what the world would look like in 2100, and just piece together all those types of innovations that have not come to life yet & piece together what that would look like. Especially with suspended animation, I had to consider the logistics behind this.
I also had to consider my audience. Their age is elementary/middle school, so I had to break down my information and make sure it is something they can understand. So this whole process was different from my typical creative writing in that I normally just discuss my topics/feelings, but this was again consisting of much fact checking.”
Plastic Pollution Illustration from Becoming Earth 2.0, drawn by Lily Fang
Adrianna - What was the most rewarding part regarding the completion of the book?
Sophia – “Seeing that others enjoyed reading my book and that they are excited for it. After I published my book, I wanted to make it a whole project, so I now call it Becoming Earth 2.0 environmental education initiative, where I would visit summer camps, libraries and schools, and make a presentation/ lesson based on my story. What was so rewarding is seeing their eyes light up, the overall excitement in kids, getting to share it with them, seeing how I achieved my goal partially in making kids excited about how they can be stewards of earth. I really enjoy spreading my message across the community.”
Adrianna - How have you shared this book with the community? (Local and beyond)
Sophia – “Yes absolutely, I have gone into nature camps as a guest speaker to present, organized author events with libraries, visited elementary & some middle schools, and partnered with children’s book project (a literacy organization in SF). I additionally want to make sure the book reaches underprivileged children, as it is challenging for them to access books in general and resources for how they can protect the earth. I therefore hope to continue to donate books to schools such as that. I only make 7 cents a book, which is used to further book donation initiatives. I want to use the little amount I earn to further fund my projects, making it ultimately as big as possible.”
Adrianna - What was your experience when sharing this with kids at The HEAL Project?
Sophia – “I recall vividly because THP was one of the first camps I ever visited with children. So, getting into that I was nervous... due to not knowing if I could catch the attention of children or whether kids would be interested. It ended up being a fabulous experience, as I enjoyed interacting with them greatly. Despite the covid pandemic, I was able to go in person & show THP kids the book. I invited along a member from my nonprofit organization, and we did a free giveaway including 3 books. It was super exciting and I was very satisfied seeing smiles & being in the moment.”
Adrianna - Were any projects or goals of yours impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic? (Book related or not)
Sophia – “Regarding my book initiatives, the impact was not that big, but noticeable in some ways. For example, it messed up presentations, as virtual presentations are not engaging for kids. Additionally, several camps rejected me for pandemic related causes. On top of that, visiting with masks on is not as ideal.
In regard to my non-profit, it did not impact Light Earth’s Destiny’s progress, as the whole mission has always been to build a network of students across the bay area. We were separated regardless, as we would often do zoom meetings anyway. Thankfully, we are all very motivated high school students, and each has their own position to fulfill, consisting of their own tasks & to-do list. With individuals being self-motivated and proactive, the combination of our work ethic together is extremely successful.”
Adrianna - What kind of goals do you have for the future, any specific projects you are currently working on?
Sophia – “My goals in the near future are that I would like to continue my book initiative, as this is a project I have dedicated most time to and am extremely passionate about. When I go to college, I would like to either continue running my nonprofit, or at least find someone to succeed and run as president in my place. I hope to keep Light Earth’s Destiny running as long as possible. In the long-term, I will continue to involve myself in environmental aspects, as this is a huge part of my life. Getting into career goals, while I am not 100% sure yet, I think focusing on environmental policy, and gearing us towards a lower carbon economy, will be on my agenda.”
Adrianna - Any other initiatives or thoughts you would like to share. Thank you!
Sophia – “You are welcome to check out our website for any other interesting things, I believe I have covered my top two projects.”
Adrianna - Going deeper into Sophia’s top 2 projects, her non-profit, Light Earth’s Destiny, is hosting an eco-art contest. This contest would love as many submissions as possible, and calls all young artists aged 5 to 14 to create an environmentally themed art piece! Some theme examples are Imaging Our Green Future, Focusing on the Present, and Honoring an Environmental Hero. There are many opportunities for sponsored prizes, and you can win a copy of Sophia’s book!
Additionally, Sophia & her innovative tech team’s app came out this last weekend! It is available on android and apple devices. What a neat way to get kids learning while they’re having time on the iPad!
Conclusion… How can we keep up with Sophia?
Adrianna – “Sophia shared that her current nonprofit site, Earth-v2.org, stays as up to date as possible. She has a long-term goal of potentially starting a different website to keep track of her various undertakings. Lastly, keeping up to date with her name app game, Saving Earth 2.0, is a great way to stay involved. I want to give a huge thank you to Sophia, for not only taking time to share her story with me, but for most importantly, making an extreme effort to save the planet in an impressive multitude of ways. We look forward to hearing about your continued success in the future, Sophia!”