CarbonTrack is a non-profit student environmental organization founded by high school students. Now led by Jack Yu from Carnegie Mellon University, the team consists of both high school and college students. It strives to combine AI, data algorithms and scientific research to explore innovative environmental solutions and engage teenagers in sustainable development.

Currently, CarbonTrack has 30 members from schools across the globe, divided into three departments: technical development, content research, and business operations. The team developed the CarbonTrack carbon account platform for young people, accessible across multiple terminals including an official website, iOS App and WeChat Mini Program.

So far, CarbonTrack has partnered with 13 high schools worldwide and maintains a long-term cooperation with Turning Green, an environmental organization in California, USA. It has recorded more than 300 low-carbon actions in total, continuously expanding the influence of youth environmental action.

I’m a member of the technical team and lead the development of CarbonTrack’s WeChat Mini Program to further broaden our user base in China. Within this mini-program, users can record daily eco-friendly behaviors such as green commuting, energy conservation and food waste reduction. Our technical team reviews submissions on the backend, while the system automatically calculates users’ CO₂ emission reductions from submitted data using algorithms backed by authoritative scientific literature. The system also converts these reductions into points, which users can exchange for rewards, earn environmental achievement certificates, and compete on campus leaderboards. This digital incentive mechanism helps teenagers develop long-term sustainable habits and gain a sense of achievement.

SAGE stands for Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship. As the school’s only business club, we chose this name because we hope every member can build an entrepreneurial mindset, a strong sense of social responsibility, awareness of sustainable development, and a global vision.

Our club is split into three main teams:

1. Academics Team: Host economics & business-related sharing sessions and take part in business competitions
2. Events Team: Plan and run campus activities including garden party, club festivals and other school events
3. Design Team: Create our club’s unique merchandise, such as plush bears, T-shirts, fridge magnets and so on.

We have around 35–40 members each year, made up of Grade 10 and Grade 11 students. The photos above show our club group pictures from my Grade 11 and Grade 10 years, respectively. Every year, we hold two to three club-bonding events. We spend roughly 30% of our annual club revenue on these gatherings, to celebrate all the hard works our club members have done over the past year. Another 40% of our income goes toward developing new merchandise and covering production and startup costs. The remaining 30% is used to support brand-new student clubs on campus, helping them start and develop. We also donate part of these funds to off-campus charity organizations.

When I was in Grade 10, I joined the Design Team. I turn my creative ideas into finished designs that we sold around school at annual celebrations and holiday events. Some of my most successful projects include:

• Campus-scenery-themed memo pads, with 12 unique designs in total. Priced at ¥4 per notebook, we sold over 100 copies in just two days.
• Gold-stamped envelopes in red, green and blue. They feature school buildings, our club’s plush bear and the SAGE logo. At ¥16 for a set of three, more than 100 sets were sold within one school year.
• Little goose plush toys, with changeable clothes like glasses and scarves that buyers could mix and match. The clothing came free with purchase. We sold over 200 plushies at ¥58 a piece.

We also have our signature club product: campus plush bear. It is by far our most popular item and always sells out most quickly. Last year, we even expanded sales to another branch campus and built a cross-campus distribution partnership with their business club. The bears come with red, blue or green outfits — either casual T-shirts or formal suits — matching the school uniforms of each grade level. Priced at ¥65 each, 400 bears were completely sold out over one weekend during our school’s open-day.

I created this board game ahead of our annual club festival. I aim to draw more students to our SAGE stall and keep them engaged. I redesigned a map of our school as the game map, turning real campus buildings into purchasable properties. I added fun, school-themed surprise events on special squares. For example, landing on our campus snack shop “Sweet Hut” lets players enjoy a snack bonus; getting caught during a dorm check-in means you have to stay still until the punish time period ends.

I worked with local suppliers to produce the physical board, print event cards and rulebooks. Different-colored Lego blocks represented each player. Within just one hour, more than 100 students stopped by to play, and the game got positive feedback. The full set of game rules is in the attached document above.

After I entered Grade 11, I took on the role of Academics Team Lead. I wanted to pass on what I had learned from my AP Microeconomics and Macroeconomics classes, as well as my hands-on experience from outside competitions including IEO, NEC and BPC, to younger students in our club. I created a ten-session lesson series covering game theory, risk-taking decisions, behavioral economics and other economic topics in real life.

During these classes, we also played my Campus Monopoly Game. This helped our members fully understand how the game worked, so they could confidently explain the rules and answer visitors’ questions at the club festival. It was incredibly joyful to watch my teammates grow — many started out only curious about economics with very little background knowledge, and slowly learned how to connect economic concepts to everyday life. That experience showed me how meaningful it can be to share knowledge with others.

Our themed video aims to show the relationship between climate change and food. This video starts from people’s daily life. It first explores how food production, transportation and consumption affect the climate, then shows how climate change in turn affects agricultural production, food supply and people's lives, and finally proposes more sustainable agricultural choices.

Every piece of food on the table is closely related to the climate system. Our dietary choices can either exacerbate climate issues or become part of the solution to climate change.

The exhibition was named “Climate on the plate” and was located in the M50 Creative Park of Shanghai. I hold this exhibition with 9 other students to raise people’s awareness on climate problems. We attracted 400+ visitors from over 10 countries in one day, including university professors, international residents, families, and senior citizens. The exhibition has four parts.

The first section, Before the bowl, illustrates how climate change threatens the foods we eat. We put models of rice, tea, fish, kiwi fruit and cocoa beans on paper plates to visualize shrinking food resources. We also designed a Food & Climate Map and the exhibit The Journey of a Grain of Rice. It walks visitors through rice’s full lifecycle from planting to delivery, explaining resource distribution and transportation, as well as climate risks like droughts and floods that disrupt food production. We also examined the future of rice and possible alternative crops under global warming.

The second section, Changing Waters, explores disappearing glaciers. We clarified the differences among ice sheets, glaciers and icebergs, and display three student paintings about ocean conservation. Field data collected from the Yangtze River has been visualized as a colorful route map. We used a large ice block topped with polar bear models to simulate glacier melting under global warming. It shows the urgency of protecting our planet. Reducing carbon emissions is not merely a slogan. Without climate action, polar bears and other wildlife will lose their homes and go extinct.

The third section is named What Stones Remember. Here, we displayed 5 beautiful rock specimens on the table, introducing various rock types and their distinctive textures. Different rock formations, such as sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, originate from diverse geographic locations. These natural archives preserve signatures of the environmental conditions present when they were formed. We also hosted an interactive activity called “Paint the Rock”. Visitors can draw their reflections directly onto stone surfaces, allowing them to experience how rocks record and retain traces of the natural world over time. Some drew plants and flowers, while some others drew boats sailing on the ocean.

The last section, Youth in Action, shows student projects addressing climate issues in creative ways. I led the curation of this section. I compiled materials of 5 projects and created multiple presentation forms, such as video exhibits and interactive game zones. The projects illustrate how young people boost environmental awareness by developing websites and running school activities. They cover environmental science, biology, data science and economics. I had interesting discussions with visitors during my introductions. Notably, one visitor was deeply interested in CarbonTrack. He pointed at a poster image of CarbonTrack’s event by the Golden Gate Bridge and mentioned that he lived in San Francisco and planned to explore more about the organization once he finished his trip in China.

These are our environment-themed products, covering glass cups, key chains, canvas bags, coffee ground aroma diffuser……We used eco-friendly materials to make these products and printed sustainable living habits on them to raise people’s environmental awareness.

I have volunteered at Shanghai Library East Branch and Shanghai Library Huaihai Branch since 2024. During this past winter vacation, I was assigned to the children’s section by library staff. As the Lunar New Year was approaching, the library held a woodblock rubbing activity. I happened to have experienced this traditional Chinese craft earlier, during a school farm-study trip to Chongming Island, so I was already familiar with the whole process. My job was to guide young kids print festive patterns to welcome the new year.

The process of woodblock rubbing is as follows.

1. Spread paint evenly over a carved wooden board.
2. Lay a sheet of paper on top, tuck its edges under the board, and roll a brayer back and forth so the paint transfers fully onto the paper.
3. Lift the paper off slowly to avoid smudging, revealing a beautiful finished pattern.

We offered black and gold ink. The gold ink faded quickly and often produced blurry, incomplete prints. Most visitors in the children’s section were under 10 years old, and nearly all of them preferred the bright, eye-catching gold color. Hoping to give them a wonderful experience, I tested several different types of paper. Eventually I found that paper napkins worked best — this highly absorbent material held the gold pigment far better. After switching materials, the prints turned out much clearer, and I could see how happy the kids were. Kids had small hands and lacked the strength to hold the board steady while rolling the brayer. So I held the board for them and repair prints that came out faint. In total, I helped over 100 children discover the charm of this traditional craft.

Books at Shanghai Library are shelved by categories — for example, D stands for politics-related books and J stands for art books. Readers often struggle to locate books when they are unsure which category the book falls into. When visitors felt confused, I showed them how to use the library’s book-search website: type in the book title, check whether it was available or lent out, then head to the right shelf after obtaining each book’s unique serial number. Even with clear directions, readers still met problems. Sometimes shelf numbers skipped between levels. Other times readers reshelved books in the wrong spot. In those cases, I helped search for missing books, sometimes books were in the book-return cart, other times I checked records and found books were at different floors.

Beyond book searching, I assisted readers to use the borrowing machines. One common confusion was that the children’s section only had a borrowing machine, with no returning machine. Many people showed up trying to return their books, so I directed them to the correct return location. I also explained library borrowing rules: the standard loan period is 28 days, renewable for up to 56 days total, late returns incur fines, and each person may borrow a maximum of 15 books before having to return older ones...

Whenever new users came to borrow books, I taught them patiently through every step. I also handled unexpected issues from time to time — expired QR codes for borrowing, blocked accounts from overdue books, or repaying fees for lost books. In these situations, I transmitted their concerns to more experienced library staff so that problems could be solved properly. Altogether, I assisted roughly 800 library visitors. Spending time with children and supporting readers helped me understand what being a volunteer truly means: showing genuine kindness to everyone around me.

Apart from these front-end tasks, I also took part in the works behind scene to support the library’s internal operations. At the Huaihai Branch, I worked in the storage room. My role was similar to a delivery worker. I received book request scrips sent by fax, located these books by the call numbers, and placed each book with its scrip into a small transport cart. The cart then travelled through the library’s internal conveyor system to deliver books to the correct floor, so readers could pick them up without walking across the whole building. I transported more than 500 books in total. This job gave me insight into the daily routine of library employees. While the repetitive work could feel tedious sometimes, I found it worthy in serving others and improving the local community.

After taking the environmental science course at school, I came to see how closely humans are connected to the Earth. I began to notice many unsustainable habits in daily life, such as excessive food waste in school cafeterias and peers leaving lights and air-conditioners on in empty classrooms. Although terms like carbon emissions and carbon neutrality are well known, most people still don’t have the awareness to turn these environmental ideas into real-life action. To make a change, I decided to take a novel approach: creating an edutainment game to transform environmental science into a world that players can explore and reshape.

The idea for designing a game originated from my volunteer work at Shanghai Library. My responsibility was guiding young children through woodblock rubbing activities, a traditional Chinese craft, to welcome the New Year. As I interacted with kids, I witnessed their intense curiosity about the mechanics behind printmaking. They were surprised when they obtained delicate horse patterns from wooden planks, asking endless questions about how rollers and ink boards created such vivid pictures. This process made me realize that simply lecturing children about cultural or scientific knowledge can hardly catch their attention. Without playful participation, they would quickly become bored and distracted. Game serves as a powerful tool to attract audiences and make knowledge accessible.

I began incorporating renewable energy and ecological concepts I learned in environmental science class into my game. For example, after discovering that biofuel generates far fewer CO₂ emissions than coal, I created a farm-themed scene where players collect cow dung to produce biofuel. Based on the knowledge that mangrove forests provide vital ecosystem-regulating services, I designed a plot where players protect mangrove habitats by clearing litter and caring for resident wildlife. I developed a 6-stage gameplay where players can protect forests, accumulate carbon assets, and trade them strategically to experience a simplified version of the real-world carbon market.

I searched real-world data and built up some formulas to support the scoring mechanism of this game:

• 2kg cow manure + charging time ≤ 1.2s + heat power ≥ 80W = 3kg reduction in CO₂ emissions.
• Removing 1 unit of coastal litter = 2kg increase in blue carbon
• Final game score = Σcarbon credit trading volume × carbon price × pledge rate (which fluctuates between 20% & 30%)

To make the game appealing to children, I used pixel art as the game’s art style. Factories and banks appear as friendly patterns rather than the serious buildings in realistic scenes. Since most people live in cities nowadays, the scene of farms and factories may seem unusual. I wish that the contrast between cities and countrysides can attract them to explore further and learn the lifestyle of countryside, which is to live in harmony with nature.

I established a publicity team of 15 people to bring this game to schools, corporations and communities, spreading carbon finance knowledge to more people. During promotion, we received plenty of feedback and suggestions from players of different backgrounds and made corresponding improvements.