Reports from campus: Student Champions for Climate Justice Awards
Through the Student Champions for Climate Justice Awards, presented by APHA’s Center for Climate, Health and Equity, students held on-campus events this fall addressing climate justice. Read the reports below and learn more in our Public Health Newswire story.
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Rising to the Challenge: Developing the Charlotte Youth Climate Change Symposium
As an interdisciplinary team of students at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, our proposal aimed to gather local public health administrators, student leaders, and community organizations to explore the role of climate change on urban health disparities.
With the city of Charlotte serving as North Carolina’s largest metropolitan area, we found it important to use our events to emphasize recent findings linking climate change with worsening health outcomes in our local community. As such, we proposed a three-day collaboration between our campus and community advocates in pursuit of addressing climate-health concerns both within Charlotte and beyond.
In the promotion of this effort, we incorporated members of our campus community (including the Honors College, relevant academic
departments, public health, policy, and sustainability-centered student organizations, honor societies, and university administrators) to help us organize and collaborate with local stakeholders invested in the promotion of environmental health equity to bring this vision to fruition.
As our first event, we co-hosted an educational tree-planting event with UNC Charlotte’s Office of Sustainability. This gathering included volunteers and University representatives to promote awareness of the connection between urban greenspace and the health of local residents.
While planting trees, we provided tea to our volunteers and discussed the importance of planting trees in our local community — hence why we named this event “Spilling the Tea on Tree Planting.” This event successfully concluded with over 90 newly planted oak, pine and cherry magnolia trees.
We believe tree-planting is an engaging and environmentally-friendly way that youth can invest in the sustainability of their communities. Such events encourage citizens to capitalize on the benefits of planting trees and foster the growth of urban greenspace.
For our second event, we launched an inaugural annual symposium dedicated to local youth climate justice advocates. This event included a team-based climate change policy hackathon and showcased local environmental health initiatives and the efforts of student-led organizations.
Our primary objective was to center interactive awareness surrounding various environmental health and social justice concerns, while allowing our young participants to explore tangible solutions to these issues.
By targeting high school students in our efforts, we hoped to provide rising college students with exposure to these concerns and equip them with resources, connections and knowledge about the impact of climate change on health.
Our attendees utilized our post-event surveys to report that they found this event to be an invigorating introduction to climate change advocacy. Educating young members of our communities about ways in which they can fight against climate change is the first step to building a more climate-healthy society.
In our last event of the series, we hosted a town-hall style hybrid panel discussion focused on advocating for sustainability on college campuses and beyond. The event was held in UNC Charlotte’s Atkins Library and live-streamed online.
Our panel was composed of five speakers representing the UNC Charlotte Sustainability Office, Sustainable Development Goals Club and Charlotte Green Initiative — all of whom had different perspectives on the roles universities play in addressing climate change.
This event successfully concluded our series by highlighting our individual agency in promoting sustainability ventures in whatever capacity we are able. As an example: one of our panelists, Michael Lizotte, our university’s Sustainability Officer, described ways in which underutilized campus spaces exhaust nonrenewable university resources. All members of the campus community bear the responsibility to communicate about their needs and track energy consumption in order to optimize resource use and enhance campus and community sustainability.
We would like to thank APHA for selecting us for the Student Champions for Climate Justice award, the Sustainable Development Goals Club for supporting our on-campus events and the TedXCraverRoad Countdown Committee for allowing us to share the impact of our events to debrief and highlight the importance of climate-healthy campuses and communities.
In hosting these events, we chiefly intended to empower local voices and raise awareness of the global and local health concerns that are amplified by climate change. Our events were developed in solidarity with countless communities across the globe who are most impacted by the devastating consequences of climate change and we acknowledge that all of us have a role to play in alleviating this harm. In spreading awareness of climate, public health, and equity concerns, we support a rising generation of public service leaders committed to improving environmental health for all.
University of Florida
Webinar on health equity, social justice gets high marks
Our climate justice and health equity event was a webinar that was focused on climate justice and health equity in the Caribbean, Africa and Diaspora. Our goal was to not only highlight the work, research and other efforts toward achieving climate justice and health equity, but also to amplify the voices of people who work and live in these regions.
Our panel was made up of four professionals, Khevon Rhiney, PhD, Jonell Benjamin, MPH, DrPh, Natasha DeJarnett, PhD, MPH, and Gregory Jenkins, MD. All of our panelists have extensive experience in the areas of climate justice and health equity in the Caribbean, Africa, and across the diaspora.
As two women from the Global South, we have seen how the impacts of climate change have negatively affected our home regions and countries despite contributing very little toward it. As such, it felt important to us to shine a light on how these regions are impacted, the work that is being done now, and what can be done in the hopes of inspiring collective action toward creating a brighter future for us all.
Before the webinar, we sent out a pre-webinar survey for participants to complete. In this survey, participants were asked about their knowledge about climate justice and any experience they had with climate related events. We had 75 respondents for this pre-webinar survey and a few of the responses are summarized in the following figures:
We also asked participants to provide their own definitions of the terms climate justice and health equity. Some of the responses we received were:
“For me, it means giving "justice" to the environment by being deliberately conscious of our actions towards conservation.”
“Health equity calls for the equal access to health care and support. This means overcoming discrimination and poverty.”
“I would define health equity as being that all people have equal access to healthcare. Not only this but that when discussed people should not have to feel that their health restricts them. Health issues should not be a topic that is taboo. Similarly, people that experience health disparities should not feel that they are inferior nor should they have to go through the struggles that an ableist society has placed on them.”
“Health equity is the movement to prioritize and advocate for equitable health and wellbeing for all people via healthcare, environment, and access to resources that promote and optimize health and wellbeing.”
The webinar was attended by 50+ people overall. Each panelist presented their work for approximately 15-20 minutes. Following the presentations, we allowed our participants to ask questions. We also presented questions that were submitted ahead of time through the pre-webinar survey. Our participants were highly engaged during the presentations and asked some interesting and important questions.
In the end, we were happy with the overall webinar virtual experience. Our panelists gave highly informative presentations, and our participants actively engaged with valuable questions resulting in substantive dialogue. We were also pleased by how well received the event was and the positive comments people gave, including how this webinar has improved their knowledge about this topic. Participants also provided details about the type of related events they would like to see in the future.
We are grateful we had the opportunity to present this important topic and highlight the work being done in the Caribbean, Africa, and the Diaspora as well as amplify the voices of people who are close to the issues. We hope that our webinar has newly sparked or reignited interest in our participants to take action. We hope that this experience is only the beginning and we can continue to have conversations and inspire everyone to take action to ensure that we have climate justice and health equity for all.
South Dakota State University
Climate change, public health and at-risk populations in South Dakota
As a health geographer and current MPH student focusing on the impact of climate change on public health, I was thrilled to learn about APHA’s Student Champions for Climate Justice project, and, even more so that our team was one of the five award recipients.
Our climate justice team is three students. I like to imagine that all of us are dressed in our super hero climate justice fighter suits spreading the word of how climate change impacts public health issues and fighting for the cause. But, in reality, our team members are all current or recent students in undergraduate or graduate online programs, and all live in different locations.
Super heroes or not, this was one of our biggest challenges in creating our interactive experience. Our academic community has a broad geographical range. We needed something that could be created and accessed remotely. Our South Dakota State University Climate Justice Experience website was the solution.
Our academic community experience focuses on the impact of climate change on public health issues, especially food insecurity in Native American and other rural areas in South Dakota. South Dakota is one of the least populous states and has one of the largest Native American populations in the U.S. All of these communities are at risk and already face many hardships such as poverty, higher rates of diabetes and heart disease, and limited access to healthy foods, health facilities and education resources. Climate change will only make things worse for these groups. For these reasons, our team chose this as our topic.
The SDSU experience highlights the abundance of food deserts in South Dakota. Access to food and healthy food choices is already limited and will only increase with climate change. The project also highlights how tribal groups are coping by building sustainable communities now and for future generations.
Our project was well received by the community. We were in the news, campus news at least, with web articles on the News@SDSTATE site and a mention in the weekly campus newsletter.
To gain more exposure to the project, the site was moved to the Community Practice Innovation Center. We are delighted that our project is part of this group. We are also very happy to add that one of our team members was asked to present a poster highlighting the SDSU Climate Justice Experience at an upcoming conference.
The future of our project looks bright. We are seeking other avenues to present our work. The site was added to the curriculum for three courses for this academic year. This has helped expand the reach of our website to the academic community, providing information about climate change and the injustice that communities at risk face.
I’ll admit students were given extra credit for visiting the site. A little motivation can be a good thing. In addition, we would like to add the sections that we were not able to complete during the project timeframe. From the poster submissions, more detailed information about Native American and other rural communities can be added as we receive more feedback, questions and continue our research.
Loyola University Chicago-Parkinson’s School of Public Health
Environmental racism, social justice workshop spreads awareness
Loyola University Chicago-Parkinson’s School of Public Health is composed of undergraduate and graduate-level students in diverse academic programs. The team has dedicated advocates of public health who collaborated to create and present the “Environmental Racism” Workshop.
Heightened asthma prevalence, in relation to poor air quality, is a well-documented public health concern for west- and south-side Chicago residents, yet limited action has taken place to protect the minority Black, Indigenous and people of color communities. Decades of cascading events such as historic redlining and the industrialization era have created the pathway for present-day environmental racism within our Chicago communities.
Previously established by Loyola’s graduate students, the “Loyola Educating About Public Health” program has been introducing local minority high school students to Public Health topics since 2019. The program’s 90-minute, in-person workshops consist of an engaging presentation to introduce material, a 10-minute talk from a faculty guest speaker to highlight career pathways, an interactive game with prize incentives and mentoring opportunities.
Utilizing the L.E.A.P. platform, the “Environmental Racism” workshop aimed to inform and spread awareness of environmental racism and its impact on our local communities while highlighting current policies and actions that are taking place and discussing opportunities for students to become involved in their own communities. All attendees were sent home with a plantable tree starter kit and/or a plantable herb pencil after each workshop as a participation incentive.
To conclude each workshop, teams of high school students with Loyola mentors were formed to compete in the interactive climate justice game with winners taking home stuffed animals made entirely from recyclable materials. Pretending to be a group of climatologists, each team was allotted a restrictive budget and had to choose the most impactful long-term changes from three price-varying options in eight climate-contributing areas. This game inspired teamwork through debates and strategic thinking while also informing students of existing climate issues.
The effectiveness of each workshop was monitored through an assessment poll that was given at the beginning of the workshop and repeated at the end, allowing us to identify and quantify acquired student knowledge.
Throughout the presentation, intellectually stimulating questions were incorporated to encourage students to connect their own potential experiences with environmental racism and climate justice. In the assessment polls, students were asked, “What aspects of your life contribute to or limit climate justice?”
Prior to the presentation, 31% of students reported being unsure but by the end of the workshop, 100% of the students were able to report at least one contributing factor such as one student who responded, “I take the bus and now I'm going to educate those around me about climate justice.”
At the end of the workshops, students who were interested in learning more ways to become involved in their community were invited to join our emailing list where we provided follow-up information on opportunities. Overall, 69% of attendees were provided the volunteer and advocacy supplement.
We hope that our students will continue to reflect and act on their own contributions to climate change while further advocating, volunteering, and spreading awareness of environmental racism and other climate injustices. Community outreach is only the first step in tackling climate injustice but together our voices can spread far and wide.
Georgetown University
Collaborative looks at urban heat islands, environment injustices
As 2022 Student Champions for Climate Justice, the Georgetown Undergraduate Environmental Health Collaborative aimed to emphasize environmental injustices and extreme temperature exposures in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. The programming accelerated our collaborative, founded last spring, by Ursula Gately and director Mark Kuo, with board members Minoli Ediriweera, Amber Mickelson, Alex Bamford, Urooj Ahmed, and Shreya Kalra.
The experience allowed all Georgetown students the opportunity to exercise and reflect on our university values as they get involved in learning about environmental health and participate in acts of service to the Georgetown and Washington, D.C., community.
Our weekend of programming started off strong with a blanket-making workshop. We made no-sew blankets and donated them to St. Stephen Martyr, a shelter for unhoused individuals. The shelter will distribute them to people during the winter months.
Saturday, we hosted Samantha Ahdoot, founder and executive director of Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action, and Jeanne Braha, director of Rock Creek Conservancy. This panel format was moderated by another founding member of Georgetown Undergraduate Environmental Health Collaborative, Urooj Ahmed, and me.
We had a lively conversation addressing topics ranging from extreme heat in the DMV to environmental burnout. Then, on Sunday, we hosted an invasive species removal at Glover Archbold Park with Rock Creek Conservancy, removing species such as paper mulberry, wineberry, five-fingered aralia, oriental bittersweet and Japanese honeysuckle. Finally, we ended the weekend with an evening of meditation at Georgetown’s John Main Center for Meditation and Inter-religious Dialogue, a contemplative sacred space in the heart of Georgetown’s campus.
The GUEHC board was very excited to share this weekend of programming with the community and impressed by the turnout. With over 50 participants, students demonstrated marked changes in their understanding of climate risks and reported increased awareness of how to get involved in climate health advocacy in their communities. One participant in their exit survey from the event wrote, “There are larger societal issues at play… in terms of the environmental conditions people live under and their ability to access health care.”
The intersection of environmental change and health disparities was a key focus of this event and provides the framing for the focus of our group. We are now shifting our focus toward further education opportunities for students at our institution, assisting in the production of Georgetown’s second planetary health report card, and a research project on D.C. community garden soil pollution and its relevant health implications for DMV residents.
A large domain of the Georgetown undergraduate body consists of students passionate about creating change in the world whether it be through policymaking or healthcare efforts. By seeing that we all must fight for environmental health justice in the hope of embodying cura personalis, a Latin phrase meaning care for the whole person, our community will be further united.
This event made an impact on both our DMV community at large and the Georgetown student body, not only allowing our group to blossom but galvanizing the student body against environmental health inequity. This event series has spearheaded Georgetown’s growth in environmental health undergraduate programming and will lead to more climate health-conscious and civically-involved public health practitioners and medical professionals.
