Category: Engagement

September 8, 2020

#GreenGraduates: Featuring Yvonne Cuaresma

The Green Graduate series is a collective of interviews and conversations with environmentally-minded and eco-conscious NYU graduates. As these students move on to the workforce, graduate programs, and other opportunities, we are struck with how different the world seems today than it did a few months ago. Our hope with this series is to inspire, motivate and most importantly, honor our recent graduates.

In the mood for tips on greening the mind, body, and spirit? Look to Yvonne Cuaresma. As a Master’s student in Steinhart’s Food Studies department, Yvonne’s eco-consciousness is a driving force behind her daily choices.

Identifying as Filipina American, Yvonne has many rich childhood memories spent in the natural world. At seven years old, Yvonne’s family packed their bags to move to California, where her days were filled with adventures like camping, fishing, and trips to the lake or beach. While her love for these scenic landscapes grew, her parents made sure that love for the outdoors was coupled with something else.

June 16, 2020

Green Grant Update: Environmental Justice Curriculum

by Kiersten Blake and Alexia Leclercq

New York City, our shared city, has a gap in environmental education programming, namely a lack of focus on environmental justice education. We decided to co-author and implement an environmental and climate justice curriculum at the High School for Teaching and the Professions (HSTP) in the Bronx. Our project-based curriculum covers topics such as environmental and climate justice, sustainable and equitable land use, public and climate health, and global effects, and was created with teacher, student, expert, and community-based organizational input to reflect on the multidimensional nature of the climate crisis from an interdisciplinary and social justice viewpoint.

May 18, 2020

#GreenGraduates – An Interview with BennuAube Amen

As a Brooklyn native, it would have been easy for BennuAube Amen to fall into a familiar routine at NYU. When she started college in 2016, her experience with both the city and environmentalism were well beyond many of her peers. Bennu had the opportunity to get her feet wet in high school, volunteering at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. She thinks back to her time in the Botanical Garden often, learning about horticulture and botany, teaching young kids, “that’s where I really learned to be a student,” she said.

May 13, 2020

#GreenGraduates – An interview with Chu Jia Sing

This is Chu Jia Sing. Like many graduating students, she’s finishing her senior year back home. For her, that’s Singapore. She moved to New York four years ago to pursue her Bachelor’s degree in economics and environmental studies – disciplines that couldn’t seem more relevant with everything going on in the world. I asked her if this pandemic has transformed how she’s thinking about sustainability and environmental justice? Her mind goes to the localization of supply chains, “Will we cut down on emissions, are we going to minimize the environmental harms we inflict on small indigenous communities?” Read more

April 17, 2020

NYU Fights Food Insecurity During COVID-19

New York, the city that never sleeps, has gone silent. As we transition to remote learning and working, we are struck with the inequalities being both created and deepened by COVID-19. NYU is a university not only in the city, but of the city. It is our responsibility and privilege to answer the call in one of New York’s greatest times of need.