Joining Ecogenia for the Traveling Crew 2026

Stepping up as Project Coordinator for the 2026 Traveling Crew Exchange Program, Mariana Herron shares a full-circle journey from searching for climate solutions to finding purpose in the field. She writes about the raw value of experiential learning, community building, and how our generation is moving past simply talking about the crisis to actually doing the work to be part of the solution.

I am 23 years old and I already feel like I am having a full circle moment.

From an early age, I was taught to help and respect others, to give the benefit of the doubt, to find the solution that makes everyone happy, and to always look for the path less traveled. Being an advocate came naturally, and like many people of my generation, my first experience in advocacy was for the climate. From learning about it in school to organizing buses to take us to Fridays for Future in Athens, I recognized climate change early as the biggest challenge of our time. And that recognition came with a question that has followed me ever since: how can I help, and where can I be the most impactful in front of such an obstacle?

I started with volunteering alongside the firefighters protecting Dionysus, the mountain I had watched burn in vivid orange more than once. I joined the scouts to learn about the land I wanted to be a steward of. I went into politics, driven by the idea of making the biggest change for the most people possible, and I focused my studies and thesis on sustainability and community building. Every summer became an opportunity to serve and to learn something I could not have learned in a classroom.

In 2022, that search led me to the United States, where I participated in AmeriCorps NCCC’s Environmental Stewardship pilot program as a Corps Member. What followed was one of the most formative experiences of my life. Driving from Denver to California, working across the state on land restoration, trail maintenance for ecotourism, nature accessibility, water and land management, and wildfire prevention, I learned from experts in the field what real environmental stewardship looks like up close. The fieldwork was irreplaceable. So was everything that happened in between.

In our off time, my team and I visited state parks and lived moments I could not have imagined: stargazing the Milky Way with the naked eye in Yosemite, swimming in Lake Tahoe, seeing the old growth redwoods of Mariposa Grove. We bonded across diverse backgrounds and built something rare. The communities we served showed genuine gratitude for our work, and we left every project site motivated by the impact we could see with our own eyes. Throughout my term, I kept asking myself the same question: what could this look like if implemented in the country that raised me, the one I had come to love even more from a distance? What could it look like in Greece?