Ai Mizokami

Ai Mizokami, is a 17-year-old Japanese highschool student with an academic focus on Science, passionate about socioeconomics issues.

Born in Japan but raised for five years in Indonesia, Ai encountered life in the developing world firsthand, greatly influencing her values and widening her perspective. She still remembers a shocking amount of plastic waste she saw on what used to be a beautiful coast on what was supposed to be an idyllic visit to the seashore. From her car window, she witnessed children her age working all day just to feed their families on a daily basis. These memories drive her passion for environmental protection and social justice. With this drive, she has launched an NGO to educate children in poverty in developing countries, as well as a TEDx club at her school to encourage Youth empowerment.

Having developed an aptitude and academic focus on science, Ai is especially interested in the environmental aspects of these issues as an area where she can make a difference. She has already begun this journey having worked on developing bioplastics, and she recognizes environmental impact is the product of social as well as scientific advances. This is where Ai will apply her passion to pursue change.

Ai is working on developing a youth-led platform that works to educate citizens about one of the biggest environmental challenges facing the world, plastic pollution, and to activate youth around the world to make a difference. Having seen this issue from both a developed and developing world perspective, Ai aims to bridge the gap in order to stimulate collective action. Only through united grassroots efforts will governments truly take notice and action to finally reduce our dependence on plastics and find alternatives to benefit humankind.

Looking ahead, Ai hopes to study environmental engineering at university to contribute to scientific solutions to the problem, but for now, Ai is focused on making a difference through social impact and action.