This past month Planet Forward launched the Frontline Climate Fellows Program, a new fellowship program aimed at bringing minority students into the realm of climate communications. The director of the program, Jesse Holland Jr., says that he is “aiming to get more students from minority backgrounds interested in the environment, sustainability, and climate journalism”. The stories will be told through a range of media including videos, audio podcasts, and written stories. The fellows in the program have no restriction of the form their story takes as long as the central idea relates back to the climate, the environment, or sustainability.
The first cohort is working on researching and creating stories that focus on their neighborhoods or in frontline communities where there is a lack of reporting taking place. The students have been focusing on how issues including environmental justice, gender, and equity can take on a new level or urgency when examined in the context of climate change. The stories aim to spotlight local leaders in these frontline communities who are pushing for solutions to the issues their communities face.
The 2024 cohort consists of six students; Kimberlee Blevins, a master’s student in Environmental Science from Sitting Bull College; Emiliano McLane, a master’s student in Agricultural and Extension Education at New Mexico State University; Alexia Nastasia, a sophomore majoring in International Relations and Sociocultural Anthropology from Boston University; Sareya Taylor, a senior majoring in Creative Writing from the Institute of the American Indian Arts; and two GW undergraduate students, Kwame Okoro and Dre Pedemonte. Kwame is a sophomore majoring in Africana Studies and Political Science, while Dre is a senior majoring in English and Journalism. These students are well into their research and are focusing on topics including CO2 levels in Washington DC’s poor neighborhoods, aquaculture and fishing communities in the Chesapeake Bay, transitioning from coal based power to solar power for an Indigenous tribe in the four corners region, and air pollution in Senegal, to name a few.
The six week program began with a week long master class in journalism on June 10th. The fellowship is planned to go through July 19th. During the week-long master class, the six students came to GW’s School of Media and Public Affairs where they spent five days speaking with journalists, environmental experts, and professors, brainstorming story ideas and the best way to get these stories published. After this week-long introduction, the students meet one on one with their individual mentors weekly, and have a weekly check-in call with the entire cohort to discuss their projects, progress, areas they may need help with, and other interesting finds from their research.
This is just the first year of the fellowship program and Holland says planning has already begun for years two and three. Planet Forward is looking to expand the program to more students in upcoming years. The program will operate exclusively in the summer and Holland expects the summer 2025 application process to begin this upcoming February or March. Holland says the program is looking for “any student who is willing to take the time to tell stories about the environment, and is willing to work and be coached by active professors and journalists”.