Ela Gokcigdem - Earth echo
Ela Gokcigdem is a freshman at Babson College from Arlington, Virginia. After witnessing the environmental and economic collapse of her hometown in Turkey, she found a way to use business as a platform to advocate for sustainability. She is the founder of ePearl Technologies and won runner up at the NFTE National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge in 2019. From there she channeled her profits into her non-profit “Youth Environmental Society” which provides high schoolers with a baseline environmental curriculum. These ventures have allowed her to be featured on NBC, ABC, The Washington Post, and internationally through the Voices of America Network. She is an advocate for climate change education and has pushed for the implementation of said curriculum through her position on her counties’ sustainability advisory board. She serves as a member of EarthEcho International’s Youth Council and on the finance teams of Zero Hour and Climate Cardinals.