NYC Climate Justice Hub 2025-2026 Fellowship & Internship Programs Kick Off: Finding a Community!
November 3, 2025
The NYC Climate Justice Hub’s Fellowship & Internship program kicked off the second cohort this past month with an intensive three-day Academy from October 7th-9th. The event brought together nine Fellows and five Interns, along with the Hub and New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA)‘s staff, to engage in meaningful conversations around climate justice issues over meals.
The nine Fellows are Alexander Shearman (Political Economy, Macaulay Honors), Izza Amir (English, Hunter College), Josue Rosa (Finance, College of Staten Island), Victoria Melo (Law, CUNY School of Law), Yaneisha Burroughs (Public Administration, John Jay College), Azka Saqib (History and Library Science), Jacob Velez (Digital Marketing, Queens College), Ezra Undag (Sustainability in the Urban Environment), and Walter Arzu (Sustainability in the Urban Environment, The City College of New York).
They will be working with and representing CUNY students on seven campaigns and coalitions that NYC-EJA has developed or is a member of: Extreme Heat, Forest for All NYC, Last Mile Coalition, NY Renews, PEAK Coalition, Renewable Rikers, and Transform Don’t Trash.
The cohort of Fellows will form a student caucus that represents and is accountable to CUNY students.
The five Interns are Nial Parmanan (Law, CUNY School of Law), Josh Levine (Community Health & Social Science, CUNY School of Public Health), Leslie Mejía (Education, College of Staten Island), Diana Higuera (Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures), and Juan Carlos García (Psychology, Graduate Center).
They will be working directly with NYC-EJA member organizations to support their local projects and initiatives. The Fellows will be placed with GOLES, Brotherhood Sister Sol, Nos Quedamos, El Puente, and The Point CDC, respectively.
Key concepts
On the first day of the Academy, Hub co-directors—Kendra Sullivan, Michael Menser, Eunice Ko, and Eddie Bautista —welcomed all the Fellows and Interns and introduced them to the Hub’s origins, vision, partners, and core programs.
NYC-EJA described the work of our participating members and the priorities of the communities they represent. NYC-EJA also presented the key environmental and climate justice issues they and their members work on in their campaigns and coalitions, as well as the foundations of the movement, such as the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing.
Campaigns grounding
On the second day, Eddie Bautista delivered a master class on the legislative and budget processes, as well as the power structures of New York State and New York City.
“As an international student, these things seem very confusing. So I’m very grateful to actually understand laws and how bills pass now.” CUNY Graduate Center student and El Puente intern Diana Higuera (Graduate Center) remarked.
After the lesson, Fellows met one-on-one with NYC-EJA staff members to learn more about the campaigns and projects they will be joining. Fellows met with Victoria Sanders, NYC-EJA’s Climate and Health Programs Manager; Shravanthi Kanekal, NYC-EJA’s Senior Resiliency Planner; Kevin García, NYC-EJA’s Senior Transportation Planner; Celeste Perez, NYC-EJA’s State Climate Policy Manager; Daniel Chu, NYC-EJA’s Senior Energy Planner; Eunice Ko, NYC-EJA Deputy Director; and Michael Higgins Jr., NYC-EJA’s Land Use Planner.
While the Fellows met with NYC-EJA staff to get grounded in the campaigns, Eddie Bautista and Alan Minor, NYC-EJA Hub’s Coordinator, oriented the five interns on the work they will do at the member organizations.
For the last module of the day, Michael Menser and Maithreyi Rajeshkumar, Fellowship Lead, presented student organizing at CUNY throughout its history and findings from last year’s student survey on the key climate issues CUNY students face, like poor air quality, water pollution, flooding, extreme heat, little access to green spaces, among others.
Coming together as a community
On the last day, Fellows and Interns discussed their responsibilities for the upcoming months and shared their main takeaways from the Academy.
“I’m grateful to have experienced a space like this. I really appreciate coming together, community. I appreciate that you all are so committed to community as well,” College of Staten Island master’s student and Nos Quedamos intern Leslie Mejía said.
Fellow Azka Sakib (Queens College) commented on how grateful she is to have support through the Fellowship. “It is like the Jemez Principles say, [it’s] about coming together.”
Josue Rosa (College of Staten Island) said he is excited about being trusted to get involved in his Extreme Heat campaign assignment, about all the work that needs to be done, and about the opportunity to pave that path for others.
The Fellowship Program offers a $5,000 award and will run until June 2026. The Internship, which awards $9,000, will run until February 2026. This year’s Fellows and Interns were selected from a highly competitive pool of more than 200 applicants.
The NYC Climate Justice Hub is a partnership between the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA) and the City University of New York (CUNY) to advance frontline solutions in the Black and Brown neighborhoods NYC-EJA members serve.