Effective and sustainable solutions to contemporary environmental challenges, such as climate change, poverty, and intercultural conflict, will depend, in part, on the involvement and innovation of youth. To meet these challenges in an increasingly global world, youth need new connections, skills, and opportunities for civic engagement that transcend their local communities and national borders. In this article, we highlight the need for both internationalizing and greening approaches to youth development and describe results from a program that is aimed to do just that. Jane Goodall’s Global Youth Summit (GYS) was designed to foster connections and to empower youth toward environmental and humanitarian activism at local and global levels. Youth and emerging adults from 28 countries participated in a week of environmental and humanitarian education, service, and action planning. Participants completing pre- and post-summit measures (N = 74) showed gains on measures of community service self-efficacy and environmental identity. Combined with other measures, some support was demonstrated for gains in diversity attitudes and feeling a part of nature, but less so for leadership. Youth ratings of GYS experiences and open-ended responses provide support for results and give voice to youth’s perspectives on GYS outcomes.
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