Each summer, the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE) joins forces with Putney Pre-College to bring together passionate high school students from around the world for a Youth Summit on Climate, Equity, and Health.
The weeklong program trains students to become climate and health leaders in their communities through workshops, field-based 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, programs director at Harvard Chan C-CHANGE, has organized the annual summit since 2021.
“Over the past four years, we have had over 400 students join the program, all bringing unique backgrounds and climate stories,” said Flanigan. “What makes this program so inspiring is watching each student get energized to take action as they craft a climate action plan to address an issue facing their own community.”
This year’s program welcomed 67 high school students from 19 states and five countries (China, Greece, Taiwan, Uganda, United Kingdom), representing a range of backgrounds and community engagement in climate work. The students joined like-minded peers in groups that focused on climate communications, press, and media; policy and advocacy; medicine and healthcare; entrepreneurship, industry, and tech; climate science; environmental justice; and global health, epidemiology, and infectious diseases.
Unique experiences convene toward climate action
Kohana Henson, a 12th grader from New York City, said she was inspired to join the program because of the climate events she experienced.
“I did not want to continue seeing smoke in the sky and train systems not working because of flooding. I wanted to learn about why these things are happening, and how I can change something so that it does not continue to happen in my future,” said Henson.
For Summer Bannigan, an 11th grader from Kansas, climate wasn’t part of her curriculum in school. Through her own research, she realized that the omission meant the student body wasn’t informed about the impacts of climate change and how they can take action.
“I think the more people learn, the more they can make a difference. It just takes one person to start talking about climate change and spreading the word.”
Students spent the week hearing from guest speakers including Harvard professors, social media creators from Harvard Chan C-CHANGE’s list of Climate Creators to Watch, youth activists, healthcare professionals, psychologists, and more.
Presentations spanned beyond the basics of climate and health to help students understand the nuanced ways climate change can impact people’s lives and livelihoods. For example, groups spent one morning discussing how climate change affects lung health, another on the health challenges migrant workers experience in extreme heat, and another exploring the disproportional impacts of climate change on prenatal development in frontline communities.
Keynote speeches encouraged connection and conversations between students and the opportunity to take part in extended Q&A sessions with speakers.
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