Jerome Foster II


Jerome Foster II is an American climate change activist, voting rights advocate, and virtual reality developer. Foster is the executive director of OneMillionOfUs; an international youth voting and advocacy organization. Foster is known for delivering passionate speeches advocating for the use of intergovernmental unity and climate justice as a means to help mitigate climate change in accordance to the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming and the Green New Deal Resolution. He is also known for wearing a bright-blue earth shirt that says "Think Globally, Bike Locally" on the front and "One Less Car" on the back made by the company, Specialized Inc. Foster has led three social impact and technology ventures: TAU VR, The Climate Reporter, and OneMillionOfUs.
Foster has helped to organize three of the top ten largest climate marches across the Washington, D.C. area and has spoken at the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights in April 2019 and the United Nations Youth Climate Summit in September 2019. He gained international recognition after being the first consecutive climate striker in Washington DC and being interviewed by Former Vice President Al Gore at the Atlanta Climate Reality Leadership Training in March 2019.

Early life and education

Jerome Foster II was born 9 May 2002 and raised in Washington, D.C. Foster attended Washington Leadership Academy. In 2019, he was selected by the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education to attend Harvard University during his eleventh grade summer to take international environmental governance, policy, and social justice and calculus II. Foster graduated from Washington Leadership Academy in June 2020 and will attend Pace University in New York City starting September 2020.

Activism and entrepreneurship

TAU VR

When Foster was 14 years old, he founded an immersive technology company, TAU VR. In September 2017, TAU VR was featured on XQ Super School Live., which was aired on ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX.

The Climate Reporter

Foster, in November 2017, founded The Climate Reporter, an international youth-led climate-focused news outlet on writing articles written by teenagers young adults and front-line communities. The Climate Reporter has writers in 11 countries and 3 indigenous nations, according to their archived contributors list.

White House climate strikes

As a part of Greta Thunberg's School Strike for Climate protest, Foster holds weekly climate strikes in front of the White House in Lafayette Square. On the 13th of September 2019, Thunberg as a part of her trans-American voyage to COP 25 in Santiago, Chile, joined Foster's White House climate strikes which drew thousands to the site. During his time at Harvard University, he held weekly climate strikes on the steps in front of Widener Library with Divest Harvard organizers who called on the university to divest their endowments in the fossil fuel industry. He helped get 186 additional signatures for their petition to Harvard University during his 3 months that summer. After Foster return from Harvard University in late 2019, he was approached by Jane Fonda where he was asked to help found and construct Fire Drill Fridays which was a weekly climate strike held in front of the U.S. Capitol Building.

OneMillionOfUs

Foster founded OneMillionOfUs in early 2019. It is a non-partisan, non-profit, international youth voting and advocacy organization that provides resources and training to young adults. This organization also created a "Uniting Youth Coalition" representing 5 youth social movements: gun violence, climate change, immigration reform, gender equality, and racial equality to have a space on both the local and national level to coordinate events and campaigns between movements. It is often misspelled as "one million of us".

Honors and awards