On May 17th the Buzz Project Team consist of three High School Students from Holliston and Hopkinton envisioned combining live performance, music, visual art, storytelling, technology, entrepreneurship, and community engagement to make pollinator conservation relevant and accessible to people in their community. The Buzz Pollinator Project is a community-centered program combining hands-on learning and theater with environmental action to educate people on the importance of pollinators.
Alara Hendekli, Holliston High School Junior, Aarav Nadkarni Hopkinton High School Sophomore and Abhinav Pillai Hopkinton High School Freshman participating in Imagine Corps recently held an event at the Hopkinton Center for the Arts promoting the benefits of pollinators on local ecosystems.
Imagine Corps, a youth innovation and community service program that equips teenagers to tackle authentic community challenges through creativity, collaboration, and human-centered innovation. Unlike traditional classroom experiences, Imagine Corps places young people in diverse teams, experientially teaches them, asks them to work on real issues identified by community partners, and challenges them to transform ideas into initiatives that create meaningful community impact.
Alara, Aarav and Abhinav have been equally important in moving the Buzz from an Imagine Corps summer internship concept toward a genuine youth-led enterprise.
Alara initially emerged as the team’s visual designer. She created marketing materials, flyers, and the official website. Her teammates would articulate what they hoped to communicate, and Alara would listen, synthesize their input, and turn those collective ideas into actual communication materials. She also took on the technical challenge of setting up the project’s crowdfunding page. Her multilingual abilities, technical aptitude, artistic eye, and musical talents give her an unusually broad creative toolkit.
Her creativity has also extended to the team’s community Variety Show. Alara contributed to the development of skits, acted in several scenes, and played guitar in one of the show’s most tender and impactful musical moments as well as she organized a bake sale to raise funds for the Pollinator project.
Aarav Nadkarni and Abhinav Pillai have been equally important in moving TheBuzz from an Imagine Corps concept toward a genuine youth-led enterprise. Aarav led the development of TheBuzz Garden app and wrote and directed the variety show. Abhi, the youngest of the three, pitched in wherever helpful, including participating in ideation, direction setting, and, for the performances, acting and running crew. Together, the three have assumed responsibility not simply for generating ideas, but for determining what the project could become, organizing the work required to move it forward, and engaging many others in bringing that vision to life. Their complementary talents and willingness to work collaboratively are among The Buzz’s greatest strengths.
The Buzz Pollinator Project represents an unusual approach to youth-led environmental action.
Rather than simply telling people that pollinators are important, these teens are experimenting with creative ways to help people care for and participate. Their Variety Show uses theater, music, humor, storytelling, and performance to engage audiences emotionally. Their Pollinator Garden App seeks to extend that engagement beyond an event and help people translate awareness into tangible action in their own communities.
