IN A GIST
Salvador Gómez-Colón is a globally recognized climate resilience and humanitarian advocate from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In 2017, after Hurricane Maria, he created Light and Hope for Puerto Rico, raising nearly $200,000 to distribute solar-powered lamps and hand-crank washing machines to 3,500 families. Since then, Gómez-Colón has launched other climate-resilience initiatives including responses to Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas, the 2020 Puerto Rico earthquakes, and Hurricane Fiona in 2022. As of September 2023, Salvador’s organization has collectively raised nearly $250,000 and directly reached 5,000 households across Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.
A member of Marvel’s Hero Project, he’s received the Diana Award for socio-humanitarian work, the President's Environmental Youth Award, and is one of the World Economic Forum’s Inaugural Ten Teenage Changemakers and TIME’s Most Influential Teens. Gómez-Colón publishes opinion writing and has contributed to TIME, The Independent, and CNN Business, among others.
Salvador is also the author of Hurricane: My Story of Resilience, published by W.W. Norton/Norton Young Readers in fall 2021. He is currently a senior at Yale University.
SOME OF THE OUTLETS THAT HAVE FEATURED SALVADOR’S WORK:
“In our moments of crisis, empathy doesn’t mean merely feeling for others. It requires turning our emotions into positive actions, with the common purpose of supporting each other.” - Salvador Gómez-Colón for TIME Magazine
