Roanoke Rapids, N.C. — Nine high school students participating in the fifth year of the Center for Energy Education’s Radiant Rays internship received the 2026 Young Change Makers Award on July 21 at Rural Beacon Initiative’s “The Future We Build: A Gala Honoring Champions in Energy, Environment and Climate” in Raleigh. The award recognized the cohort’s vision, courage and commitment to building tomorrow’s climate movement.
C4EE’s fifth Radiant Rays cohort included Ka’Dashia Johnson and Elissa Pierce of Halifax County Early College; Olivia Strachan, Kylie Scott, Jariyah Bookhart, and Ja’Niyah Boyd of Roanoke Valley Early College; Claudia Harley of Haliwa-Saponi Tribal School; Serenity Fludd of J.F. Webb High School; and Quatashia Barnes of Bertie Early College High School.
The award marked a defining moment in a summer built around learning, leadership, and public communication. Under the guidance of Whitley Jones, C4EE’s Community Engagement and Youth Outreach Manager and the cohort’s internship advisor, the interns spent five weeks developing Voices of the Future: Girls Leading the Clean Energy Conversation, a four-episode podcast series featuring interviews with industry professionals and discussions of renewable-energy innovation, environmental justice, misinformation and energy myths, and clean-energy careers.
“It was a very exciting and new experience for me,” Harley said. “The person I interviewed was very informative and helped me understand more about myths in the renewable energy industry. Overall, I had an extraordinary time and learned more about renewables that I hadn’t known before.”
For the series, the interns interviewed Ajulo Othniel, CEO of EnerWealth Solar Solutions; Tamera Slade, Senior Manager of Stakeholder Relations East at AES Corporation; Cameron Oglesby, senior consultant at Frontline Solutions; Anna Weitz, clean energy engineer at the NC Clean Energy Technology Center; and Neil Robertson, workforce liaison at the Center for Energy Education.
The internship curriculum also introduced the interns to solar energy, battery storage, grid modernization, community impact, energy policy and career pathways. They brought those lessons into the podcast, using research and interviews with energy professionals, public officials and community leaders to translate complex energy topics into accessible conversations.
“The Radiant Rays had a rare opportunity to create and lead a podcast for the Center for Energy Education, and the knowledge they gained—and demonstrated—was remarkable,” said Jones. “Watching them receive the Young Change Makers Award was a beautiful moment, and I’m excited to see where they go next.”
Seven of the nine interns attended the gala at The Pavilion at Angus Barn, where they accepted the award and heard a keynote address from Michael S. Regan, who served as the 16th administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“Every generation inherits challenges that it did not create, but every generation also has the opportunity to shape what comes next,” Regan said.
“Young people aren’t choosing between jobs and clean air and clean water. They’re demanding it all,” he continued. “They’re not choosing between economic growth and environmental protection. They’re challenging us to imagine a future where those goals actually reinforce one another.”
“That’s exactly the kind of leadership that I’m optimistic about,” Regan said.
The Radiant Rays’ podcast project offers one example of the approach Regan described. Across the four episodes, the interns examined connections among energy technology, economic opportunity, public health and community decision-making through conversations with energy professionals, public officials and community leaders.
“This recognition affirms what we see every day: when young people from rural communities are given access, guidance and a place to use their voices, they do more than participate—they lead,” said Mozine Lowe, executive director of the Center for Energy Education. “We hope the Radiant Rays carry forward the confidence to ask difficult questions, the courage to pursue opportunities in clean energy and the understanding that their ideas are essential to shaping the future of their communities and the energy industry.”
The four-episode Voices of the Future: Girls Leading the Clean Energy Conversation series will be released this summer on the Center for Energy Education’s Spotify and YouTube channels.