Aspen Challenge: Youth Lead to Address Climate Change, Violence, Mental Health, and Poverty Alleviation
Setup
The Aspen Challenge presents teams of high school students from New Orleans and Miami who have developed innovative solutions to issues that have impacted their communities. See these young changemakers take to the stage to prove that entrepreneurial community solutions can be created at any age. Learn how Benjamin Franklin High School at the Katherine Johnson Campus is tackling climate change in New Orleans, how Frederick A. Douglass High School is combating the city’s violence, and how The NET Charter High School: Central City (New Orleans) led a campaign to promote empathy and change the way students see themselves. Hear from Miami’s American Senior High School on creating an online resource of affordable child care options so families don’t have to choose between jobs and taking care of their children.
- 2022 Festival
- Environment
- Economy
- Society
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Environment
![Gettyimages 1488043800](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/4f1048e8-0b45-4e5c-ab68-b59fdc805164/GettyImages-1488043800.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&mono=0a80bc&q=80&rect=2240%2C0%2C4480%2C4480&w=400)
![Gettyimages 1488043800](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/4f1048e8-0b45-4e5c-ab68-b59fdc805164/GettyImages-1488043800.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&q=80&rect=2240%2C0%2C4480%2C4480&w=400)
Conflict and suffering can bring out the worst in people, but it can also bring out the best. This is one of the lessons New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has learned...
![Meet 7 Women Leading the Way to a Brighter Climate Future](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/11e09403-1a70-4720-abb0-8c203f892106/GettyImages-1415703633.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&q=80&rect=738%2C0%2C3733%2C3733&w=400)
Women are crucial to the climate movement, but their voices are often underrepresented and their work goes under-supported. Meet just a few of the women from this year’s Aspen...
![Aif Stock Hero Images](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d53c86d8-a116-4261-8468-bf005c53bca1/AIFStockHeroImages.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&mono=0a7c51&q=80&rect=1453%2C0%2C3377%2C3375&w=400)
![Aif Stock Hero Images](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d53c86d8-a116-4261-8468-bf005c53bca1/AIFStockHeroImages.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&q=80&rect=1453%2C0%2C3377%2C3375&w=400)
The federal right to abortions in the United States has been overturned, access to contraception and IVF services are threatened in many states, and the gender wage gap persis...
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Henry Louis Gates Jr. — one of America’s leading public intellectuals and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard — explains the i...
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A nonbinary comedian challenges us to question our notions of self, gender and society, and opens our eyes to what we may gain in the process.
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Why do some conversations succeed while others stumble? The neurology and psychology of communication offer surprising explanations for why human connection goes right or wron...
![Does American Capitalism Still Work?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/6ddc1a5b-c983-41dc-9fdf-c50d8411fce7/53823880878_647f9e3767_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C242%2C4650%2C2616&w=400)
In a time of growing wealth disparity and evolving societal values, can capitalism adapt to sustain the American Dream?
![Women Investing in Women](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/29942e24-e2ab-4f83-94d2-b907fbaf4615/53823873613_23991edd49_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C1453%2C3100%2C1744&w=400)
Women are twice as likely to invest in female-led businesses. Explore the ways women approach wealth building and investment, and how they create opportunities to build financ...
![Are American Women Going Backwards?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/a4f70e43-9976-4d6c-936d-6ffb4f1b3993/53824046585_143bcae259_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=180%2C0%2C2062%2C3101&w=400)
The rollback of reproductive rights, the push to end no-fault divorce, and gun laws that allow domestic abusers to own a firearm are turning the clock back on women’s rights....
![Ford’s CEO on EVs and Driving Into the Future](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/08b088f4-4719-4c3b-9330-be6ac4ff123a/fordceo.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C297%2C5632%2C3168&w=400)
Join Jim Farley as he explores how drivers' needs and priorities are guiding the future of vehicle technology and reshaping our expectations of cars and trucks.
![Pushback: The Perils (and Power) of Corporate Commitments](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/4740a973-6c0d-4f57-9c35-796fdd369fa2/53823862693_2b19d6cc7e_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C1453%2C3100%2C1744&w=400)
With ESG caught in the political culture wars, business executives must decide to speak up or stay quiet about climate, diversity and democracy. What do employees and citizens...
![Extreme Heat: The Silent Killer of Climate Change](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/b5e2e176-6cbe-4d92-b593-011e59139c36/6.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C97%2C4651%2C2616&w=400)
Heat is now the top weather-related cause of death in the U.S., killing more people than hurricanes, floods and tornadoes combined. An environmental journalist and two city ch...
![There’s an Energy Transition Happening in Your Backyard](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/038a9839-e479-49fe-ab58-0fbb6194b7d8/energytransition.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=2293%2C0%2C3669%2C5503&w=400)
Every transition comes with tradeoffs, and even clean energy carries negative consequences. As they mine for critical minerals or build solar arrays on sensitive land, clean e...
![Navigating Tomorrow’s Economy (Part 1 and Part 2)](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/6174eb00-1e5e-4da8-acfb-8b85be903d4b/53822186869_5287ac99ed_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C312%2C6000%2C3375&w=400)
![Choosing Our Families](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/3812d6cd-ff04-4feb-b0a9-ab271b9c5849/53823337075_48dbca4089_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C430%2C8256%2C4644&w=400)
Marriage rates have been decreasing for decades, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t finding new ways to create family ties that bind. Family bonds in the LGBTQ community and...
![Forgiveness in Times of Turmoil (podcast recording)](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/6a39dfbb-1abd-4ee5-9416-2290484c22f4/53823968189_21a4f4f910_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C242%2C4650%2C2616&w=400)
As the stakes of political confrontation have escalated, the issue of forgiveness is complicated. Should one ever hold the line rather than look for avenues of reconciliation,...
![King of the Deal](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/6ae1f900-5437-49d6-b9b1-b2a8d361dd92/53823958184_0494f8c2a2_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=1292%2C0%2C2067%2C3100&w=400)
From one of the highest perches in the entertainment industry, the CEO of sports and entertainment behemoths Endeavor and TKO takes us on a journey of leadership and leverage....
![The African Century](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/bdb124db-886c-4221-854e-1e6893bfb3be/53824085325_aa02dd6d1f_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C1453%2C3100%2C1744&w=400)
Africa is a rising giant. By 2050, one in four people on the planet will be African, and by 2060, Africa will have the largest labor force in the world. A former Nigerian pres...
![A Vision for Tech Equity](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d6b710dc-4837-4bae-aedc-b17d43cbe3ee/techequity.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=4%2C0%2C8248%2C4640&w=400)
The innovative philanthropist who paid off the student debt of the entire graduating class of Morehouse College class of 2019 talks about how to ensure all communities benefit...
![The Iconoclast](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/32220310-b38a-40d9-b373-6fb5dbb0b1e9/53820643279_96e2c83e4f_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C302%2C5790%2C3257&w=400)
Peter Thiel has made no secret of his feelings about economic and cultural issues. Hear him discuss his vision for the future, his bets on AI and digital currencies, his thoug...