Read the full article: https://www.cpr.org/2025/08/20/climate-change-colorado-science-standards-education/

Featured in: Colorado Public Radio | Published August 20, 2025 | By Jenny Brundin

Colorado Public Radio captured something in this headline that Lyra feels every single day: the students are not the problem. They're not disengaged. They're not waiting to be convinced. They are ready and they are waiting for the adults, the institutions, and the systems around them to catch up.

This August 2025 piece follows students who not only earned the Seal of Climate Literacy — donning medallions and special green sashes at graduation — but who are simultaneously fighting to make climate education stronger for those who come after them. Students from sustainability clubs across Colorado, organized under the Good Trouble Climate Network, worked with the Colorado Department of Education for more than a year to push for more rigorous science standards. The Seal is both a product of that student advocacy and a launching pad for more of it.

Lyra's Elizabeth Harbaugh spoke directly to why student voice and hands-on learning are essential and inseparable:

"When students are able to have hands-on learning or are able to do things that make a direct impact on their community they feel more empowered, they feel more confident and maybe more hope in the face of a really tough issue."— Elizabeth Harbaugh, VP at Lyra Colorado, as quoted in Colorado Public Radio

The article also features Alexander, 18, one of the first students to earn the Seal at Alameda International Junior/Senior High School, who described earning the credential as an honor and spoke about how it helped him understand the way environmental challenges affect the cost of living and people's health. That connection between climate, economics, and community wellbeing is exactly what the Seal is designed to make real.