Climate Cardinals

Executive Director

Founding Director

Deputy Executive Director

Senior Partnerships Director

Partnerships Director

Williams College

2023-2024 Sustainable Living Community Coordinator

2023 Root Director

WEPO Programme Assistant

2022 Root Orientation Leader

Principles of Macroeconomics Teaching Assistant for Professor Steven Nafziger

Winter Intern for Chief Communications Officer Jim Reische

Writing Tutor at the Center for Developmental Economics

-Presented results of independent study to the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation, with 200 attendees, including Stockbridge-Munsee citizens and college and community stakeholders.
-Presented to the Williams College Board of Trustees on internship with Stockbridge-Munsee Community, including repatriating cultural heritage items and coordinating volunteers for the Nation's archaeological excavation.
-Presented to the Williams College Admissions' Tour Guiding Program on Mohican Nation past, present, and future in Williamstown prior to the introduction of a land acknowledgment.
-Coordinated a trip to Stockbridge-Munsee cultural heritage sites for first-year students.
-Collaborated with student orientation leaders to introduce a basic introductory Mohican language class.
-Collaborated with the Communications Office in December 2021 to produce a "Mohican Homelands" banner to display on the main student center on campus, some of the first signage on a College building on campus to address Stockbridge-Munsee Community's past, present, and future in Williamstown, part of their homelands. 
-Applied for and received a grant to organize two side events focused on Stockbridge-Munsee Community for Claiming Williams, a day dedicated to conversations on diversity and inclusivity at Williams College. Stockbridge-Munsee Community Tribal Council President and Cultural Affairs Director will speak at the event in February 2022.

HIST 497: Mohican Nation in Williamstown

Economics Tutor

Writing Tutor

Campus Tour Guide

Root Orientation Leader

Summer Campus Tour Guide

United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)

Summer Research Assistant

Exeter College, Oxford 

Junior Common Room Charities Representative

Ecologic Institute, Berlin, Germany

Scientific Staff Intern

The Williams Record

Beat: Remote Entry, Faculty, Race, Privilege, and Identity.

Staff Writer

Stockbridge-Munsee Community Tribal Historic Preservation Extension Office

• Initiated a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act claim on a Mohican ceremonial and religious artifact in a historical society’s collection
• Prepared and submitted four National Register nominations to designate Mohican cultural heritage sites as sites of national importance, including short research papers and archaeological data in each submission. The Massachusetts Historical Commission added the sites to their records, though one is still pending finalized archaeological findings from the Tribe's contracted archaeologist.
• Recruited and coordinated 51 volunteers for an archaeological research investigation into Mohican Nation history
• Will continue with an independent study on Williamstown and Mohican Nation past, present, and future in Fall 2021

Tribal Cultural Resources Intern

Wave Learning Festival

Wave Learning Festival is an educational platform organized by students at Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, UPenn, Williams, RISD, and SLO on which college students teach free seminars on a variety of topics to middle and high schoolers online.

Student Feedback: 
“Hikaru and Joe were very nice, educational, and they were great teachers! The class did last longer than allotted because they did so good, so good job to them!”
“This has been one of the most engaging wave courses I have ever been enrolled in.”
“I missed a lot of the first lessons due to time difference, but the classes I did take were loads of fun”

These were your average ratings across 4 reviews, 5 being the highest possible number.
I learned something new from this course: 4.75
My teacher communicates well: 5
This course increased my interest in the field: 4.25
This course was engaging: 5
I felt a sense of community in class: 5

Teacher, "Introduction to Migration" 

Candace Valenzuela for Congress

Candace Valenzuela was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Congress in Texas-24.

Campaign Fellow

Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program

The YES Abroad Alumni Association (YAAA) is the alumni association for Americans who studied abroad on the U.S. State Department-funded Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study Abroad Program.
- Attended regular meetings with YAAA Newsletter Team, where I pitched ideas for articles for the biweekly newsletter. 
- Wrote articles ranging from the future of study abroad amidst the pandemic to the COVID-19 generation of graduating students in the YAAA.
- Regularly interviewed alumni and other people of interest.

Newsletter Contributor for the YES Abroad Alumni Association

Hikaru Wakeel Hayakawa is a Caribbean and Japanese American climate justice activist, Indigenous Studies researcher, and social entrepreneur. 

Hayakawa is the Executive Director and a founding director of Climate Cardinals, one of the world’s largest youth-led climate advocacy organizations with 16,000 volunteers in 134 countries and 100 chapters in 33 countries. Hayakawa established Climate Cardinals’ signature translation program in partnership with Translators Without Borders and Google Cloud. As a full-time student, he expanded Climate Cardinals’ translation capacity to a million words per year, handled translation requests for over two million words of climate information, and fundraised for a six-figure budget, with Climate Cardinals becoming one of the first-ever youth-led organizations to be funded by Google’s philanthropic branch. Now, he works full-time for Climate Cardinals.

Hayakawa also represents Climate Cardinals as part of UNESCO’s Youth Climate Action Network Steering Committee, a network of networks that represents over 10 million youth climate activists, and the WHO Youth Council, together with Climate Cardinals' Research Director. Hayakawa has spoken about his work for the Smithsonian, the UN Development Programme, the Italian Ministry of the Environment, UNESCO, Deloitte, and the U.S. Interagency Group on Climate Literacy. His work has also been featured in Axios, the Guardian, Forbes, and Teen Vogue.

In June 2024, Hayakawa graduated from Williams College magna cum laude with highest honors in Global Studies for a thesis on the global Indigenous rights movement. At Williams, he received the institution’s most distinguished award for campus citizenship. Hayakawa has prior work experience with the UN Environment Programme, the Ecologic Institute, and the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation, a federally-recognized tribe.

Hayakawa has been named to the Global Student Prize Top 50, Grist 50 Class of 2024, the American Councils for International Education 50 Alumni for 50 Years, the Clean Energy for Harris Advisory Board, and the Youth Impact Council, led by the Duchess of York.

Contact: exec (at) climatecardinals.org
Learn more: https://www.hikaruwhayakawa.com
Donate to Climate Cardinals: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/climate-cardinals

KELLY CLARKSON SHOW on December 3 (!!)

Five years ago, we were just teenagers translating climate information with $500, a Google Form, and a belief that language shouldn’t be a barrier to climate action.

Tomorrow, Climate Cardinals will be featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show.

I’m trying to “catch my breath” at how far this group of scrappy teenagers has come — and at the incredible volunteers and teammates who built this movement one translation, chapter meeting, and late-night message at a time.

Shoutout to chapter leads Hrdyansh Singh, Bibishika K., and Raj Baniya, who even ended up in the show. 💛

Thank you to Kelly Clarkson and her wonderful team for uplifting youth climate leadership and making space for our story. 🫶🏽

Tune in tomorrow, December 3 on your local NBC affiliate.

⬇️ Link to find your station is in the comments

Hikaru Hayakawa 

Building Movements for a Just Future l Executive Director @ Climate Cardinals | UN Advisor

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Climate Cardinals started with $500, a Google Form, and a group of teenagers who believed language shouldn’t determine who gets to protect their community.

A simple video went viral — 100,000 views, 1,000+ sign-ups within days, and 8,000 in our first year.

We weren’t a startup. We were young people closing a gap the world had overlooked.

Five years later, we’re a next-gen, professionally staffed nonprofit with a clear goal: end language and action barriers in the climate movement and ensure climate resilience for all.

But the real story has always been the people — the young people who built programs between classes, sleep, and homework, and the teammates who show up with care and urgency every day.

As we enter year six, our motto is simple: execute.

The foundation is set. Now we move faster, act bolder, and turn possibility into progress.

So proud of this team ❤️❤️

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Hikaru Hayakawa 's Linkedin Analytics

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