Each summer, the Harvard School of Public Health’s Center on Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE) in collaboration with Putney Pre-College convenes a Youth Summit on Climate, Equity, and Health, bringing together engaged high school students from around the world.
The week-long program develops students into climate and health leaders in their communities through workshops, field activities, and meetings with scientists, health and policy experts, academics, energy innovators, and climate communicators. This year's summit took place at the end of July on the Harvard Chan Campus.
Skye Flanigan, program director at Harvard Chan C-CHANGE, has been hosting the summit annually since 2021.
“Over the past four years, more than 400 students have participated in this program, each bringing their own unique background and climate experience,” said Flanigan. “What makes this program inspiring is seeing students develop climate action plans to address the issues facing their communities and then being inspired to take action.”
This year's program attracted 67 high school students from 19 states and five countries (China, Greece, Taiwan, Uganda, and the UK), representing a variety of backgrounds and community engagement on climate issues. Students engaged with like-minded peers in groups focused on climate communication, journalism, media, policy and advocacy, medicine and health care, entrepreneurship, industry, technology, climate science, environmental justice, global health, epidemiology, and infectious diseases.
Unique experiences bring together to fight climate change
Kohana Henson, a 12th grader from New York City, said she was inspired to participate in the program because of climate change events she experienced.
“I didn't want to see any more smoke in the sky or trains being stopped by floods,” Henson said. “I wanted to know why this was happening and what we could do to prevent it from happening in the future.”
For Summer Bannigan, an 11th grade student in Kansas, climate issues were not included in her school's curriculum, and through her own research, she realized that this omission meant that not all students were informed about the effects of climate change and how they could take action.
“I think the more people learn, the more we can make a difference. It only takes one person to start talking about and spreading the word about climate change.”
Students spent the week listening to guest speakers including Harvard professors, social media creators featured on Harvard Chan C-CHANGE's “Climate Creators to Watch” list, youth activists, medical experts, and psychologists.
The presentations went beyond the basics of climate and health to help students understand how climate change can have subtle effects on people’s lives and livelihoods. For example, one morning groups discussed how climate change affects lung health, another the health challenges migrant workers experience in extreme heat, and yet another the disproportionate impacts of climate change on prenatal development in frontline communities.
The keynote speeches fostered connections and conversations among students and provided an opportunity to participate in extended question and answer sessions with the speakers.
