How Siri Vadlamudi is gamifying climate education

(October 1, 2025) In 25 schools across Suryapet and Hyderabad, lessons on pollution no longer mean listening to lectures from a blackboard. Instead, children fold newspapers into eco-friendly bags, sculpt Ganesh idols from clay and leaves, and debate whether a bottle cap belongs in wet or dry waste. Guiding them is 17-year-old Siri Vadlamudi, a Class 12 student at Arca Global International School in Hyderabad, who has turned climate education into something playful yet deeply impactful.

Born in Suryapet and raised in Trinidad, Siri moved back to India after completing Class X. As she settled into life in Hyderabad, she began looking for ways to make climate awareness both practical and exciting. “When children lead change, the whole community shifts,” she remarks in a chat with Global Indian.

Siri with Hyderabad kids

Early sparks

Siri’s first brush with environmental activism came in Trinidad, where she created a video on mangrove deforestation near her home. “The issue was deeply personal to me, as I had witnessed firsthand the ecological damage caused by the loss of mangroves,” she recalls. That project planted the seed for what would later become her larger vision.

She also participated in the Trust for Sustainable Living’s essay competition and debates in 2022. During a discussion on whether addressing inequalities could help solve the climate crisis, she was named best debater. While the recognition was gratifying, what stayed with her was something else: “how little awareness many young people had about the urgency of climate change and environmental degradation.”

Turning games into lessons

The breakthrough moment came after her return to India. Faced with the challenge of explaining terms like “biodegradable,” “microplastics,” or “segregation” in Telugu, Siri wondered if there was another way. “What if games could be used to teach climate awareness?” she asked herself.

That question led to the creation of the Youth Gamification Club (YGC), which she co-founded with her younger brother, Sarthak. “We learned to adapt, break down concepts into simple, visual, and relatable terms that children could easily grasp. We introduced games and simulations that made the problem and the solutions come alive,” she explains.

YGC has since designed a range of innovative activities. In the Pollination Bee Game, students role-play as bees to understand how ecosystems survive. The life-sized board game Act to Adapt simulates communities facing floods or droughts, helping children think through resilience strategies. Other games like Eco-Me, Eco-Earth and Trash-Tide use video and quizzes to show how everyday choices or plastic waste affect the environment.

Siri and Sarthak

“We don’t just talk about problems like pollution or waste, we design games, simulations, and hands-on activities that let students experience the issues for themselves, understand the consequences, and adopt solutions in their daily lives,” she says.

Ripples of change

Siri’s workshops are designed to have a lasting impact. In every school, she trains eco-ambassadors who continue the campaign after her sessions end. These young leaders spark neighbourhood clean-ups, persuade families to cut down on single-use plastics, and pass on lessons to their siblings. Teachers note how students once bored by environmental science are now curious, enthusiastic, and eager to act.

For Siri, these changes outweigh international recognition. “Global forums gave me confidence, but Suryapet classrooms gave me purpose,” she reflects.

Achievements along the way

Even while reimagining climate education, Siri has excelled in academics. By the end of Grade 10 in Trinidad, she had earned 10 distinctions in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate and four regional top rankings. Twice, she was placed among the top performers in the Australian Mathematics Competition, winning Certificates of Higher Distinction.

Back in Hyderabad, she has combined leadership with learning. As Head Girl, she conducted Model United Nations conferences, edited the school newspaper, and even designed websites. Beyond school, she completed a TCS micro-internship in ESG consulting, undertook a research paper linking e-waste to macroeconomic factors, and placed first internationally in the BTDT essay competition on AI and Economics.

Looking ahead

Siri intends to pursue higher studies abroad, combining her interests in technology, economics, and environmentalism. Her broader aim is to expand the gamification model she has tested in Telangana to other parts of the world. She has also nurtured her love of writing, interning at Break the Bubble, where she critiqued Rajasthan’s Green Budget and India’s coal dependence, and launching her own website, Legends Beyond Borders, which translates Indian and Caribbean folktales into French.

“Watching their dedication to service inspired my own love for community work and planted the seeds of my lifelong interest in helping people through education, technology, and social initiatives,” she says, recalling her parents’ free medical camps in Trinidad.

Impact made

So far, Siri has directly engaged with hundreds of students, trained more than 100 eco-ambassadors, and inspired dozens of neighbourhood clean-ups. Villages have begun adopting eco-friendly practices during festivals, showing that her approach resonates beyond the classroom.

In Siri Vadlamudi’s perspective, climate education doesn’t have to begin with policy or protest. Sometimes, it begins with a classroom full of children having fun, and learning how to save the planet along the way.