The NYC Climate Justice Hub had a great year in 2025, and we are grateful to all of our participants and collaborators for making it possible! Here are some of our achievements.
In February, we held the first-ever CUNY-wide, student-centered, community-led Climate Justice Summit, which welcomed more than 400 students, professors, NYC-EJA member leadership, and EJ/CJ activists to the CUNY Graduate Center for a full day packed with panels, showcases, and discussions on climate and environmental justice. You can watch the highlights of the Summit in this video, and read the 2025 CUNY Climate Justice Summit Recap here.
Climate Justice Fellowship & Internship
The 2024-2025 Climate Justice Fellows and Interns wrapped up their participation in the first cohort of the Fellowship & Internship program, led by our Fellowship Program Lead, Maithreyi Rajeshkumar. The fellows formed four teams and developed four original projects to inform other CUNY students about climate justice issues that may impact them:
- Climate Justice Zine: Green Dreams of Environmental Justice, by the team Sueño Verde
- All Types of Nasty: What’s That Smell? – Air Quality at CUNY, by the team Los Poderoses
- Neighborhood Narratives: Climate, Community, and the Fight for Justice: Stories of climate, change, and community in NYC, by Team SO
- “CUNY Profiles Report: Tracking Climate Justice Across CUNY Campuses,” by Nos Sustentamos. This team presented their project at the CUNY Black Male Initiative (BMI) 1st Annual Research Symposium in May.
You can learn more about the projects here.
In October, the Hub kicked off its second Fellowship & Internship cohort (and inaugural Environmental Justice (EJ) Caucus) with a three-day Academy. The second cohort consists of nine Fellows and five Interns selected from a competitive application pool of over 200 CUNY students.
The Fellows are working with NYC-EJA staff members to convene a CUNY Climate Justice Student Caucus that represents CUNY students on some of NYC-EJA’s campaigns and coalitions:
- Extreme Heat
- Forests for All NYC
- Last Mile Coalition
- NY Renews
- PEAK Coalition
- Renewable Rikers
- Transform Don’t Trash
Separate from the Fellows, the Interns are placed with a handful of NYC-EJA member organizations to directly support their local initiatives. The participating member organizations include GOLES, Brotherhood Sister Sol, Nos Quedamos, El Puente, and The Point CDC. Learn more about the Academy and both programs here!
Classes & Curriculum
CUNY professors participating in our Classes & Curriculum initiative took their students on site visits to some of the NYC-EJA member organizations to learn about their challenges, projects, and communities. Professor Jill Strauss and her Speech 102 class from Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) visited the Brotherhood Sister Sol in West Harlem; and Professor Smita Dewan and her Community Organization and Development class at the NYC College of Technology (CityTech) visited UPROSE in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
In collaboration with Nos Quedamos, Keiwana “Keke” Grant-Floyd and Victoria Moran Garcia, two journalism students of Eileen Markey, Associate Professor at Lehman College, developed a multi-episode podcast, “Fighting Forward: The Bronx Environmental Justice Story.” The podcast documented environmental justice campaigns happening in the Bronx. Listen to the podcast here!
During the 2025 Fall semester, students Aron Kang and Munevver Sonmez completed a capstone project on a policy overview of air quality, warehouse locations, and truck counting in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx. The capstone was a continuation of an earlier collaboration between Professor Lauren Wang’s Environmental Justice class at The City College of New York (CCNY) and The Point CDC.
In September, our Classes & Curriculum team, led by Kobie Colemon and Dinorah Hudson, launched the second year of the Hub’s Professional Learning Community (PLC) for students, faculty, and climate justice activists from across CUNY and various organizations and institutions. The PLC is a semester-long, book club-style conversation series in which attendees discuss climate and environmental justice challenges in NYC working-class communities of color served by NYC-EJA. The PLC supports CUNY faculty, students, and community members in learning strategies for integrating environmental and climate justice themes into their studies, assignments, curricula, syllabi, projects, initiatives, campaigns, and everyday lives. You can review the PLC syllabus here!
Research Teams
Imani Cenac, Nos Quedamos Hub Advocate, and John Sánchez and Hailey Miranda, Nos Quedamos youth leaders, led the Nos Quedamos Annual Youth Symposium. They are all part of the Hub’s Research Team at Nos Quedamos.
Sánchez also led the presentation “NQ’s Youth Curriculum: Using StoryMaps for Advocacy” during the symposium, along with Dr. Elia Machado, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Lehman College and Hub Research Team Lead for Nos Quedamos, and Paola Delgado Sanchez, Research Assistant and Lehman College student.
This curriculum aims to empower Melrose youth to organize the community, advocate, and advance environmental and housing justice in the South Bronx.
In November, the Hub Research Teams gathered for a Gratitude Celebration to reflect on two years of work with NYC-EJA member organizations across NYC’s environmental justice communities. During the event, our participating CUNY professors, students, and Hub Advocates shared their most important takeaways and achievements from their projects.You can learn more about the Research Teams here.
If you want to stay involved with the Hub, you can:
- Fill out our General Interest Form
- Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on social media!
- Instagram: @nyc_cjhub
- Twitter/X: @nyc_cjhub
- Facebook: NYC Climate Justice Hub
For any other questions, comments, or considerations, please email us at [email protected].
We are so grateful to our partners, funder, staff, and participants for driving our mission forward and bringing their passion, efforts, support, and positivity to every aspect of this work.
We are now preparing for our next event, scheduled for March 2026, at which our Research Teams will showcase the projects they have been developing.
We will see you there!
With solidarity,
The NYC Climate Justice Hub Team