Tufts’ Climate Resilience Institute Pre-College Program allowed me to gain valuable insight on the effects of climate change on a variety of-primarily marginalized-communities; furthermore, we delved into how to incorporate sustainability into each of these environments to make them more resilient to extreme and unpredictable climate. Lectures on specific pieces of climate resilience were given on most days, then we would split off into groups to debrief our topic of the day to gain different perspectives and offer further explanations. Interestingly, we were all tasked to give short presentations on the state of the climate where we lived; a very beneficial activity to ensure you are aware of what is going on around you(highly encourage doing it on your own, extremely valuable!). Throughout the two week course, we, fortunately, had the opportunity to speak to, hear from, and visit those in the field working towards climate resilience; we were given the pleasure of visiting Roxbury in Boston, Massachusetts to take A.C.E.’s (Alternative for Community and Environment) toxic tour around the area, the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, and Tufts very own Pollinator Initiative! Our end goal, through culminating everything we had learned throughout the course, was to produce a StoryMaps based on a topic of our choice in relation to climate change; the topics ranged from: ‘Oysters and their innate ability to filter the oceans in which they inhabit and the negative consequences of removing them are’ to ‘Deforestation in Sumatra and the impact the destructive practice has on the environment’s indigenous population and ecosystems surrounding’. Finally, we all shared our findings on the last day of the course; fun awards were given out to recognize the hard work and a chance for a final goodbye to the amazing program. I want to give a special shoutout to Dr. Gabriela Garcia(the professor of the course) and the TAs: Clara Scheutz, Emma Bittar, and ShaSha Kingston. The course truly could not have been what it was without these four. This is an experience I will never forget and am eternally grateful to have been a part of!
