On a warm Saturday in July, about 30 students from Montgomery County schools descended upon Cabin John Regional Park in Bethesda, wearing thick gloves, white shirts and carrying bright orange trash bags.
The students picking up trash throughout the park were members of Eco Moco, a group started in 2022 by two Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students with the goal of empowering local youth. After beginning with 30 members two years ago, Eco MoCo has now grown into a nonprofit involving hundreds of local students—and with chapters in other states–doing their part to leave the planet better than they found it.
Winston Churchill High School rising senior Lumina Zhang, one of Eco MoCo’s co-founders, said the first time the group held an event in Wheaton Regional Park for young kids to create art from recycled materials, some parents were surprised.
“A parent came up to me, and she was like, ‘We’ve never seen environmental education in our community.’ She was so surprised it was led by students,” said Zhang, who co-founded Eco MoCo with Northwest High School junior Peter Boyko. “That’s exactly what we wanted to see. We wanted to bring student-led change to the environmental world.”
Zhang said she became passionate about environmental issues after visiting a county recycling plant as a kindergartener, recalling that she was horrified at the amount of waste that people created. However, it was a lack of local environmental leadership groups for students that spurred her and Boyko to create Eco MoCo.
“We both have been through … a lot of different leadership organizations, but we really wanted to see one where it incorporated environmentalism since it is such a pressing issue right now,” Zhang told MoCo360.
From there, Eco MoCo took root. The group’s mission? To help students in kindergarten through 12th grade build youth leadership skills through participation in different environmental projects, according to Zhang.
Throughout the year, Eco Moco students can be found picking up trash in local parks, manning tables at local events to talk about environmental topics, teaching elementary schoolers leadership skills and hosting recycled art events.
Winston Churchill rising senior Noor Aly, 17, who was collecting trash with those 30 other students that July day, said she joined Eco MoCo after hearing about the group from Zhang and wanting to educate others about the environment.
“It’s a very widespread organization, so I’ve met people from all over MoCo and probably even nearby states that I wouldn’t have met otherwise,” Aly told MoCo360. “Meetings are always super fun, and it’s just great to feel like you’re making an impact.”
The group’s executive board, made up of seven departments and involving more than 100 students, provides board members with an opportunity to lead their own environmental projects and flex their leadership skills, Zhang said. Students can also volunteer through the group’s Eco Ambassadors Program, a smaller time commitment that provides an opportunity to participate in activities such as environmental presentations at libraries.
Becoming a nonprofit
In January, Eco MoCo was awarded nonprofit status—an unusual accomplishment for student groups.
“It takes a lot of time and energy to put it together and usually doesn’t happen, so this is a feat. Most adults struggle with the process” of attaining nonprofit status, said Larissa Johnson, an Eco MoCo board member and the residential energy program manager in the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection.
Zhang said the group needed to gain nonprofit status in order to be able to apply for resources such as grants or to provide service-learning hours for students—all of which require a 501(c)(3) status. It took Zhang two months to be approved as a nonprofit after starting the process in November 2023.
“At first, I was kind of hesitant to go in and apply because I searched online, and it said it was 100-plus hours of paperwork,” Zhang said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t know if I can do that,’ but it sort of grew so much that there was a very strong need for us to get that done.”
For Zhang, the nonprofit application process involved plenty of research, reaching out to friends with experience and cold-calling Maryland nonprofits for advice. Eco MoCo isn’t the only local student-led nonprofit in the area; STEMChests, a nonprofit focused on reducing socioeconomic disparities in the sciences, was founded by MCPS students in 2022.
Establishing a nonprofit includes recruiting a board of directors and developing program plans and a budget, among other steps, in order to fill out a complex IRS form, according to Maryland Nonprofits, a statewide membership association for nonprofits.
Ultimately, Zhang said, the process wasn’t as daunting as she expected, especially since she had a supportive team and asked those with experience for advice.
Now, Eco MoCo has more resources, including a board of directors made up of people including Johnson.
Johnson said the board members provide input and assistance to the students, as many have been working in the environmental protection field for several years.
“[Students] bring a new energy to the space as well, and they bring new solutions,” Johnson said. “That’s why it’s really important to have organizations that are led by students.”
Eco MoCo started with 30 students on its executive board and membership has grown every year since, according to Zhang. It has more than 30 chapters, many of which are based in MCPS schools; there are also chapters in states such as Virginia and North Carolina.
Eco MoCo also offers student service-learning hours for MCPS students, Zhang said. All students in Maryland are required to complete 75 service-learning hours in order to graduate.
Looking ahead
As Zhang prepares to start her senior year, she’s aware that student-led organizations can decline once their leaders graduate. But she believes Eco MoCo’s status as a nonprofit and its focus on training new leaders will help it to survive and thrive.
“Everything we do is constantly developing people’s leadership skills, so there’s always new leaders to step forward and take the lead,” Zhang said.
Johnson said many adults are surprised when students like Zhang are able to accomplish the creation of a nonprofit or decide to get involved with their community. But she sees it as a reality that’s exciting–not surprising.
“High school students, when they put their mind to something, they can get a lot done,” she said.