A Case for Open Spaces

As a teenager, Aanya Dhruv and her younger brother, Ayaan, frequently visited O’Keefe Open Space Preserve, an 8-acre wildlife area near their home in Los Altos Hills, Calif. “Before, I didn’t really have access to nature where I lived. There wasn’t much greenery,” says Dhruv, who grew up in more urban parts of California before moving to the San Jose suburb at age 13. “That preserve made such a difference in my everyday life.”  

Now a sophomore at Northwestern, Dhruv has become an advocate for preserving such green spaces. Her interest in environmental justice began during a family trip to Dahanu, India, when she was a high schooler. Dhruv noticed a large power plant in Dahanu, installed to supply electricity to nearby Mumbai. After speaking with friends, family, and local produce and fish vendors, she learned that the plant was contributing to poor air quality, water contamination and the destruction of Dahanu’s wildlife habitat.  

“It can be hard to understand and feel motivated to fight against environmental injustice,” especially because pollution and habitat loss do not affect everyone equally, says Dhruv. “But some people are forced to bear these burdens.”  

These injustices inspired Dhruv to launch EJ Grassroots, a nonprofit focused on environmental justice education, in 2022. Dhruv worked with local county representatives in California as well as faculty from nearby universities to create environmental justice curricula for grade schools. She tested the materials in several high schools, and her curricula were approved as recommended educational resources for the 2026 school year by the San Mateo and Santa Clara counties’ offices of education.

Aanya Dhruv, second from left, stands beside the EJ Grassroots team in the O’Keefe Open Space Preserve.

So when Dhruv learned in fall 2025 — her first quarter on Northwestern’s campus — that Los Altos Hills officials had proposed to rezone the O’Keefe preserve for multifamily residential development, she sprang into action. 

“My brother and I were shocked because people really value that land … especially because it had been protected by a voter-approved initiative back in the early 2000s,” she says.  

Thanks to her experience with EJ Grassroots, Dhruv felt equipped to fight back, even from a distance. The siblings launched Save Open Spaces, an EJ Grassroots campaign to inform neighbors about the motion and protect O’Keefe preserve. They raised over $33,000 to hire legal counsel in defense of the land.  

Now Dhruv is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in learning and organizational change in the School of Education and Social Policy. She also serves on the Northwestern Associated Student Government’s academic committee and is collaborating with the group’s environmental committee to revamp an Evanston school’s chapter of Roots and Shoots, a national program empowering youth to be environmental changemakers. 

Melissa Rosenzweig, who taught Dhruv during her first-year seminar on environmental justice, says tackling environmental justice through education encourages students to have “critical hope.” 

“If it was just about having the appropriate technology to solve climate change, it would have happened by now,” says Rosenzweig, an associate professor of instruction in anthropology and environmental policy and culture. “But there are social, political and economic elements that have to be dealt with.  

“We’re giving students a very honest and accurate assessment of the problems at hand but also instilling them with the capacity to think about a future that they want to actualize.  [And Aanya] has the dedication and follow-through such that people trust her as a leader.” 

Dhruv continues to oversee several of EJ Grassroots’ ongoing projects while studying at Northwestern. Her biggest dream, she says, is to open a pre-K–12 boarding school to provide a holistic educational experience. 

When it comes to advocacy work, Dhruv stresses the importance of listening to others rather than forcing her own agenda. 

“That’s what it means to be a real advocate for the people,” she says, “really listening to see what they need and determining what we can do to help them in that specific moment.” 

Laura Horne is an editorial intern for Northwestern Magazine.