Megan designing a poster.

Megan Waggoner, 17, from Palmer, AK

Megan Waggoner’s first love is the environment. She is active in Alaska Youth for Environmental Action and traveled to Washington, D.C., last year to attend the President’s Environmental Youth Awards ceremony, which recognized her group for its environmental activism.

Megan also has been working with the Alaska chapter of Young Democrats for a little over a year because she believes the Democrats are most likely to share her concerns about climate change and conservation. She supports Barack Obama and hopes the next president adopts the Kyoto Protocol, whose objective is to reduce greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

If you could talk with the candidates about any issue, what would it be?

I would talk about the environment, I think, definitely energy security and climate change. Climate change is huge, and it definitely needs to be a subject that needs to be addressed and needs to have action taken on, and I think that should be at the frontline of any candidate’s campaign.

What’s been the best response to your work from the public?

The best response is when young people are involved, (especially) seeing people who sometimes aren’t even able to vote. I think that candidates are starting to see that youth are the ones who really will push their movement.

What is the funniest thing that you have done with your work?

Let’s see, as far as Young Democrats go, I guess just standing out in like 15 below and waving Obama signs. It’s pretty fun, and you know that you’re giving something up to be able to do that.

Do you see yourself politically involved in the 2012 election?

I do, yeah. I see myself being involved in every election until, you know, the day I can’t do that anymore.