Fall semester week 4–or 4 thousand?
The course syllabus says we’ve finished four weeks of the fourteen week semester, tho’ it feels a lot like 4 thousand. This edition of putting the “WE” in Wednesday, is hitting on a Friday… But it’s the perfect time to think about Fridays for Future–and about the many young people and students whose voices are the very heart of the My Climate Story project.
At left: Students and staff at KTH share their climate stories, after remindimg us that it’s time for the adults in the room to roll up their sleeves. Photo credit: Bethany Wiggin.
In March this year, I got to offer a climate storytelling workshop for students and staff at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, some f whom you see anove. I co-designed and co-facilitated the workshop with a student whom I had the great good fortune to meet when she was in the very first year of her four-years of undergrad studies, Maria Villareal (now at Columbia). During her time with the MCS project, Maria developed a “roving reporter” series of climate stories for which she interviewed hundreds of other undergrads and edited their interviews to create climate short stories, really “micro” stories. Her work was so good, I helped her train a cohort of 12 other undergrads from 12 colleges and universities. (Learn more about their work in this essay that also includes the fantastic animated video that amazing student, Faith Bochert, made, “MCS by the Numbers.”)
Today, I’m thinking back to the Swedish student who reminded us of Greta’s reminder that young people are tired–tired of grown-ups acting like our house is not on fire. And I’m thinking too how nonetheless that student, like so many other students I am so happy to know, is working so hard–for a climate education they plan to use to create live-able futures, for themselves and for others, building on their plans to go to medical school, to figure out nuclear fusion, to organize and support social and environmental justice communities. These are very busy students, and yet they are doing the work.
We have new students at My Climate Story this fall. They’re amazing. We meet weekly in person, and you know it’s the highlight of my week. You can meet them here.
Amidst the fatigue and amidst the meetings I’m in as we build the MCS community to deliver “1000 climate stories to Harrisburg” and demand climate literacy K-16, I’m thinkng about all these students. (The meetings this week have also been great–with wowzers community filmmakers and with educators who specialize in university-high school partnerships were also great, but more about them another week.) Can you believe that they’re showing up and doing the work? Here in Philly, Nasira Seals (Penn ’29) is now taking the lead on “The Next Chapter,” and she’s already publishing incredible student stories. The first, by recent grad Alex Georgiev, “Hurricanes and What Home Became,” is incredibly moving. A native Floridian, Alex explores 2017 Hurricane Irma’s impacts on him, his neighbors, and especially on their beloved oak trees:
“We picked up branches, helped clean up yards, and especially tried to help elderly people or those lacking familial support in the area. The trees and large branches were too big for us kids to manage, so we would all grab a smaller branch and drag it out of the way, waiting for the dads to show up to deal with the big ones. What I remember about this time is how quickly people came together. ”
Alex Georgiev, “Hurricanes and What Home Became”
Photo Credit: Alex Georgiev
It’s so hokey to say, but the kids are okay–except that we should help them more!
Student Zey Oral (Penn ’29) will be doing design work for MCS, she’s already added some photos to the MCS team page. Both Zey and Nasira will be working to edit the 3rd volume of the MCS project. Can you feel me smiling? And I actually laughed out loud with pure happiness when Mary Zawalick (Penn ’27) asked me after class if there might be some way she could help out.
And, I also heard this week from other Stockholm students, Jakob Henningson and William Hilliard, now working on the magazine’s 2nd volume. Jakob shared the nice news that they’ll get to feature their volume as part of KTH Royal Institute of Technology’s 200th birthday party 🙂 🙂 And, Angela Osaigbovo (Princeton ’28) , who wrote a gorgeous climate memoir in the inaugural volume of the MCS magazine and who gave this incredible climate talk at the MCS Climate Festival back in 2025, is now in Stockholm too, and she’s helping out too 🙂 🙂 🙂
Finally, looking ahead into next week, I know I’ll be grinning from ear to ear when I get to participate on Monday in a workshop for anti-LNG activists that student Keanu Arpels-Josiah (Swarthmore ’28, taking my class at Penn now) has co-organized. Later at NYC Climate Week, I’ll be talking about all these students and their work:) 🙂 🙂 😉 I’ll be talking on a Thursday–another perfectly good day to build the WE. Keep chugging, people, whatever day it is.