Lilah Williamson
Special Cohort Member - Olympus 2025
Lilah Williamson, student at the University of Toronto and Laidlaw Scholar, joined Ecogenia’s Olympus 2025 cohort in Litochoro, Greece as a visiting special Cohort Member. In this blog, she reflects on how two months of hands-on climate action reignited the passion that first led her into activism at 14. Her story shows how local action can inspire global change.Lilah Williamson, student at the University of Toronto and Laidlaw Scholar, joined Ecogenia’s Olympus 2025 cohort in Litochoro, Greece as a visiting special Cohort Member. In this blog, she reflects on how two months of hands-on climate action reignited the passion that first led her into activism at 14. Her story shows how local action can inspire global change.
Every morning in Litochoro, I woke up to the sound of cicadas and the sight of Mount Olympus towering above me. This summer, I spent two months in this magical village in northern Greece, working with Ecogenia’s Olympus 2025 cohort – and it changed the way I see climate action.
I’ve been involved in climate activism since I was 14, when I first started organizing climate strikes in my hometown of Vancouver, Canada. Being part of that global movement was inspiring, but it also focused heavily on the scale of the crisis, not the solutions. By the time I started university in 2022, I had lost much of the fire that drove me to act in the first place. I still joined climate organizing on campus, but something was missing.
Then I came across the idea of a Youth Climate Corps – a government program that would give any young person a job doing climate work. I fell in love with the concept instantly. It was tangible, realistic, and empowering: not just another call to action, but a way to put young people at the center of building the solutions.
During the summer after my second year of university, I had the chance to explore this idea through a research project for the Laidlaw Scholars Program, on designing a Canadian Youth Climate Corps. That’s when I first discovered Ecogenia, an organization already bringing this idea to life in Greece – a country on the frontlines of climate change and grappling with high youth unemployment.
When the second part of my program called for a work placement abroad, I didn’t hesitate. I reached out to Ecogenia to see if I could join them – and before I knew it, I was on a plane to Greece.
My summer in Litochoro turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life. I learned Greek phrases, savored local food, and explored stunning landscapes – from hiking trails on Mount Olympus to plunging into the icy waters of the Enipeas River after a long day’s work. Our team built and maintained trails, ran an information kiosk for tourists, and supported the community’s efforts to protect this UNESCO-listed natural wonder.
But the biggest transformation happened inside me. For the first time in years, I felt the same spark I had as a 14-year-old leading climate strikes – but now it was grounded in action. There’s something profoundly empowering about trading slogans for shovels, about sweating in the sun to clear a path that hundreds of hikers will use the next day and that will help prevent wildfires. Climate work became tangible, joyful, and hopeful again.
I believe Ecogenia should be a national program so that every young person in Greece can experience this. And I think there should be more opportunities for international participants, because programs like this have the power to shape a generation of climate leaders — not just in Greece, but around the world.
If you’re looking for a climate solution that doesn’t just talk about change but makes it happen, look no further than Ecogenia. Programs like this remind us that climate action can be hands-on, transformative, and full of hope.
