Youth and Environmental Justice Events
- April 18, 2024Youth Making a Change in Times of Climate Change: A Conversation with Climate Action Activists
This panel brought together Bay Area environmental justice youth activists Keala Uchoa (Communities for a Better Environment), Citlalli Orozco (HOPE Collaborative), Najiha Al Asmar (Climate Resilient Communities), Amaya Dorman Mackenzie and Ariela Lara (Sunrise Movement), and Emily Cohen Ibañez, director of the documentary Fruits of Labor (2021). Organized and hosted by the Initiative’s Jesica S. Fernández, the event interspersed scenes from the documentary highlighting the story of Ashley Pavon, an agricultural worker and high school student in Watsonville, CA., with the panelists’ reflections on their journeys into environmental justice activism. These testimonies invited the audience to reflect on the complexities of coming of age in a time of climate change, environmental injustices, and economic inequities that intersect with race, gender, age, and immigrant status, and to imagine possibilities for solidarity in action, organizing and radical hope for liberatory and decolonial change. The event was organized by the Initiative and co-sponsored by multiple departments and offices in the College of Arts & Sciences, School of Engineering, Leavey School of Business, and the Office for Multicultural Learning. SCU Presents provided generous support and technical resources.
