Two La Jolla students among county’s ‘Most Remarkable’

Last Updated on May 1, 2025

Emma Weibel and Sophie Zeng are both passionate about conservation of ecological resources.

Every year, San Diego County honors a list of the “25 Most Remarkable Teens in San Diego.” This year, two La Jolla students are on the list, and were recognized Nov 19 at a ceremony with elected officials and community leaders.

Emma Weibel, a senior at La Jolla High School, was nominated for Environmental Activism.

Sophie Zeng, a junior at The Bishop’s School, was nominated for Social Conscience.

San Diego City Council President pro Tem Joe LaCava with La Jolla’s honorees, Sophie Zeng (center) and Emma Weibel (right).

The 25 Most Remarkable Teens in San Diego Program by the Office of the Primary Public Defender “endeavors to increase youth pride and a feeling of connectivity to the community while identifying the untapped potential so they can ultimately make positive and informed life choices,” according to the county.

Being named one of the 25 most remarkable teens in the county gives Weibel the opportunity to share her environmental activism with more people and meet more like-minded people, she said.

Weibel has dedicated herself to climate advocacy since seventh grade. Starting as the president of the climate club at Muirlands Middle School, she wrote and performed a powerful Climate Action Poem that won accolades at the state level.

Weibel went on to found the LJHS Climate Club, where she continues as president, planning rallies and taking on the role of student lead for the San Diego Unified School District’s electrification campaign.

Beyond the school district, Weibel is involved with several organizations including SanDiego350, where she is now a paid intern, Youth4Climate and YouthV.0I.

She’s also one of 18 youth plaintiffs in the groundbreaking Genesis B. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lawsuit.

The EPA’s metrics for cost benefit analyses “assign a lower value to children than they do adults, which is a violation of our right to equal protection,” Weibel said. “A lot of their policies are discriminatory because they inherently count youths’ lives … as lesser citizens.”

Weibel is excited to go on to college next year, where she is planning an “intersectional study of history, politics and human rights,” she said. “I am excited to bring my environmental activism to the wider world.”

For Zeng, having a social conscience is “really important in my life,” she said. “Everything that I try to do, I … do with purpose, with meaning.”

Zeng and a classmate established the nonprofit Project ARISE in 2023 to raise awareness about invasive plant species.

While undertaking wildfire research, Zeng learned that invasive plant species “are one of the most overlooked fuels for wildfires,” she said, making wildfires burn faster, farther and hotter.

Further, Zeng discovered that invasive species cost the US millions of dollars every single year, interrupting agricultural productivity, damaging ecosystems and our food chains.

Through Project ARISE, Zeng and her team developed an AI model “that recognizes the most invasive species in San Diego with over 90 percent accuracy,” educating people to remove the plant when identified and why it’s And so what we’re doing is we’re turning that into an app that people can use to, like, take a picture of a plant, and the app spits out what species it is, and, more importantly, how people can actually remove them.

“My goal with Project ARISE [is] to expand the impact and to reach more people and mobilize the masses to actually make an effort to help out when they can,” Zeng said.

With Project ARISE, Zeng has partnered with Park Rangers, local agencies and peers to raise awareness.

Also a filmmaker, Zeng’s documentaries shed light on social issues. Her first documentary, “Priceless Pride,” critically examines corporate practices during Pride Month, exploring how companies engage with the LGBTQ+ community.