(March 25, 2023) About six days after her 18th birthday, Indian American activist Shiva Rajbhandari announced his candidacy for the Boise, Idaho School Board of Trustees elections earlier this year. And in a historic run, the young climate leader, who has been quite vocal about the various natural disasters, unseated the far-right 47-year-old incumbent. A climate change leader, activist, and prolific writer – this 18-year-old teenager is all that, and much more. According to the youngster, his win marks a much-needed, long-overdue change for Boise and represents the irrefutable power of young people mobilizing together to make a change. “I definitely did not expect to be running for office at this age. But I just came to realize how important it was to try to establish a student voice on the school board,” the young leader said soon after winning the elections. “We don’t always get taken seriously as students. So, then it’s on us to take that responsibility on, to fight for our futures,” he added.
Recognised by Teen Vogue‘s ‘21 Under 21’, Shiva is a vocal gun violence prevention activist and has protested state policies aimed at restricting what students can learn. In fact, about three years back, when he was merely 15, he organised roughly 75 students to protest Chase Bank’s financing of fossil fuels. At 16, Shiva also confronted Idaho’s lieutenant governor, Janice McGeachin, about the task force she had set up to ‘examine indoctrination in Idaho education’. Although he has had a long journey as an activist, the young leader believes that he is just getting started. “Activism takes place at the intersection of your interests, your skills, and your community’s needs. From artists to writers to speakers to scientists, there is room for everybody in our movement,” the Global Indian said in his speech.
Coming of age
As a young boy, Shiva Rajbhandari would listen to his father quite intently talking about the climate crisis and how deforestation has affected tribal lives. And it wasn’t long after that the teenager started running various campaigns against climate change, gun violence, and various other issues that plague society today. “As I grew in my activism, I began working for tribal justice, voting rights, and gun violence prevention,” the young leader, who started off working in climate activism, said during an interview, adding, “After a two-year long campaign to create a clean energy commitment and long-term sustainability plan in our school district, I decided to run for the school board.”
Suddenly, Chairman Skaug values student input it’s just that students in the legislature is a threat to parental rights. Yeah, we’re not buying it either. #LetStudentsSpeak pic.twitter.com/BiwBJIybV5
— Shiva Rajbhandari (he/him) (@_Shiva_R) January 27, 2023
He got involved with school board politics while working with students across the school district at the Idaho Climate Justice League, organising a clean energy commitment and long-term sustainability plan for his schools. “In the Boise school district, energy is our second largest expenditure and we could save about half of that energy budget each year by 2030 with this long-term sustainability plan,” he shared, adding, “I sent a letter to our school board president asking for a meeting. I didn’t immediately get a response, but I know he read the letter because about a week later, I was called to my principal’s office and reprimanded for reaching out to our board members. To me, that highlighted this lack of student involvement in educational decision-making in our school district. That was when I decided to run for the school board and change that.”
The young leader wishes for students to be involved in all places where decisions are being made, but especially where decisions are being made in education. “As students, we are the primary stakeholders here – this is our education. But we were being told we didn’t belong in places where decisions about our education were being made. And so by the end of that meeting, I knew I wanted to run for the school board,” he said.
The plans ahead
Inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, Shiva’s top priority after winning the elections is working on establishing mental health counseling resources for the students – not just in his city or state, but the entire USA. “My top priority is mental health. We’re facing a mental health crisis. So, we need more counseling resources and need to destigmatise mental health in the classroom. And then, supporting teachers against these extremist attacks, and making sure they have the freedom to teach as they think is best, and feel respected. My teachers have given me the world – they are the reason I felt so empowered,” the climate change leader said.
A Young Climate Leader at the United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP27), held in Egypt, Shiva wishes to work more on creating awareness about the burning issue. “I have participated in several projects to create awareness about this issue for years now. Currently, I am working on how my school can transition away from fossil fuels to a more sustainable source of energy. In the coming years, however, I wish to take my knowledge to the world,” the climate change leader said.
