jeff rivero

Jeff Rivero is a US history and digital media teacher at Yosemite High School in Merced, California. He has integrated environmental and social equity education into a curriculum that requires civic engagement to advocate for policy changes, behavioral and procedural modifications, and equity in social, economic, and environmental issues. Mr. Rivero was selected as a United Nations Ambassador for the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals in 2019 and advised students to lead an after-school program called the Junior Ambassadors.

Mr. Rivero's Junior Ambassadors program is a STEM-based research program with a special focus on women's empowerment in the US and Africa. Past projects include Tag Not Bags, which supplied suitcases for foster youth; Forest Sustainability: Problems and Solutions, a documentary on saving the redwoods; and a campus policy to conserve water with a reduction of 40 percent during drought years. 

Rivero's innovative approach to integrating the 17-SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), career technical guidance, history content standards for California, and environmental studies into the high school classroom has led to several awards, including the Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Education, US Green Building Council K–12 Educator Award, and Green California Schools Leadership Award. 

Take Action Global, a nonprofit organization focused on curbing climate change and Quacquarelli-Symonds selected Mr. Rivero’s class for its School of Excellence awards. Prince William of Wales addressed the students virtually to recognize their work. 

The Green That School project earned the honor of being shortlisted among the top ten sustainability projects in the world. Mr. Rivero received Atwater’s Key to the City for his advocacy in support of senior citizen and veteran services, energy conservation and renewable energy production, and recreational activities for youth.