My Background

My love for cities evolved out of my love for the environment. As a child I could spend hours playing in my grandma’s garden an experiencing the nature around me. Of course, back then I did not know why it was so important to me. It wasn’t until my High School years, when I found out how bad was the state of our natural environment and how much I wanted to save it. I began just by watching documentaries, switching to a Vegetarian diet and being cautious of my day-to-day choices. In the second grade of my High School education, and the first year of my International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, one of the requirements was to do something called CAS Project. The project had to be done in a group and we were free to do whatever we thought was reasonable. Following my love for the environment, sustainability and everything that surrounded it, I came across a website mentioning Fridays For Future Climate Strikes. Reading more about it I was exceptionally inspired by the actions of Greta Thunberg and wanted to support her in whatever ways I could. Therefore, my idea for the CAS Project was to organise one of the Climate Protests in my hometown - Łódź, Poland. Although the first protest was very demanding in terms of preparation and our group (me and two other students) came across a lot of negative comments from the public, the event took place on the 15th of March 2019! To our surprise hundreds of people took part in the strike, we received a lot of media coverage and were contacted by the City Council. However, that was just the beginning… Due to the popularity of the event, one day after the climate strike me and one other person from a local youth organisation created a local group of Fridays For Future (In Polish called: Młodzieżowy Strajk Klimatyczny Łódź - Youth Strike for Climate), which still continues to run and has over 50 young, dedicated members. During the months following the first event we were invited to do several interviews for the local radio and news stations, we organised a variety of social events (including more climate protests, climate picnics, public meetings etc.) and we were invited to work with the City Council and the Mayor of Lodz to develop ideas to make our city more sustainable. These experiences had a colossal impact on my life and motivated me to find a course that would allow me to make a difference. Making cities more sustainable isn’t the solution to our climate crisis, but it is a immense contributor. Łódź is a big city, but to me it always felt like a small town, and it always feels like home. It has its flaws, yet there is a beauty in each one of them. My relationship with my hometown remains my compass while imagining and designing good spaces. It is the reason I have the motivation to work hard, so that in the future I can improve my city and, at the same time, play a part in saving our planet by creating more environmentally sustainable places.