During a recent town hall, Mayor Bill DeBlasio pointed out that the City of New York is in the resilience business and will be for decades. The message is clear – we have to invest in our future. At the Institute, students work on almost all of our projects. That’s why we are excited to work with successive generations of students and to extend our programs from the college level to high school. In the process, we are fulfilling a promise to future generations – strengthening their ability to pursue environmental careers.
Since our inaugural Fellowship in 2016, we have celebrated the success of 12 fellows. This past summer, our 2017 Fellows got first-hand experience presenting their work to City Council at a hearing on Beach Erosion, jointly convened by the Committees on Parks, and Resiliency and Recovery. We also partnered with the City Department of Environmental Protection to give our Fellows a tour of operations at the Paerdegat Basin Combined Sewer Overflow facility. We continue to collaborate with past Fellows to bolster their research and career development.
“Through my work at SRIJB, I was able to make key career connections with those within their vast network of frequent collaborators. Without SRIJB, I would have never gotten my current graduate research position.” says 2016 Fellow Rebekah Breitzer, working as a science management fellow in the core Institute office. Breitzer is currently a PhD student at CUNY Graduate Center, and working closely with SRIJB Researcher and Consortium Member, William Solecki at the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities. We recently collaborated with Breitzer and Solecki, organizing an afternoon workshop to develop formative input on their Post-Event Learning Tool.
In addition, we are increasing our reach to K-12 students. As a partner of the Resilient Schools Consortium (RiSC), we provide opportunities for teachers and students to build climate and environmental literacy in New York City. RiSC is a two-year program designed to facilitate conceptual and hands-on learning about the risk of climate and extreme weather. Students will conduct vulnerability assessments of their schools as well as develop Climate Resilience Guidelines for the NYC Department of Education. Over time, we can connect these students to college-level programs and careers in the environment and sustainability.
Former Brooklyn College Provost William Tramontano is hopeful about the success of this program. “Another step in bringing STEM education to high school students in Brooklyn and Queens is providing these students with a platform to be involved in NYC schools’ response to climate change,” Tramontano said.
Currently, the RiSC program has 7 participating schools with several hundred students going through the program. Through the RiSC program, our goal is to teach, support, and empower students to take action. Developing an understanding of the issues that students and their families face now, will create informed citizens and resilience professionals for tomorrow.
