Press Release
Empowering Student Voices: My Climate Story Launches “Campus Correspondents” Initiative
March 18, 2024
Campus Correspondents Project Creator and MCS intern Maria Villarreal Simon collects a video climate story on Penn’s campus.
Philadelphia, PA, March 18, 2024 — The My Climate Story (MCS) public research project at the University of Pennsylvania is excited to announce the launch of its new initiative, Campus Correspondents, aimed at empowering students across North America to gather climate stories and advocate for climate literacy in institutions of higher learning.
Twelve Campus Correspondents have been carefully selected to join My Climate Story’s mission to collect and compile personal perspectives on climate change. Working in collaboration with MCS, administered by the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities (PPEH), these correspondents will not only amplify the voices from their own communities but also strive for administrative and policy action in favor of an increase in resources dedicated to climate literacy in higher education.
MCS focuses on capturing the personal, human dimensions of climate change, facilitating community conversations from local to global levels. MCS began as a series of climate storytelling workshops co-developed with educators, Penn students, and hundreds of students across the Philadelphia high school system. The workshops have now been offered over 40 times online and in person. These workshops are highly replicable thanks to the publication of a freely available companion MCS workbook. Additionally, MCS has established a growing Climate Story Bank— a collection of personal narratives searchable by location and/or climate impact.
The introduction of Campus Correspondents is inspired by the impactful work of UPenn student and MCS public research intern Maria Villarreal Simon. Beginning in 2022, Villarreal Simon engaged her peers in discussions about their own lived experiences of climate change, and launched a TikTok channel to share their responses.
Spurred on by the success of this storytelling format, MCS issued a call for students from universities across North America to emulate Villarreal Simon’s lead. From February through June 2024, the twelve MCS Campus Correspondents – representing diverse geographies and areas of study from environmental studies to engineering to journalism – will each produce a series of videos showcasing their student body’s climate stories. All with the goal to generate energy within higher education leadership for increased resources dedicated to climate literacy based on the existing demand and urgency felt within their current and prospective student bodies.
About PPEH and MCS:
The Penn Program in Environmental Humanities fosters interdisciplinary environmental collaboration and scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philly, and beyond. PPEH is a collective of scholars, students, artists, scientists, and educators whose mission is to generate local and global awareness and engagement in the emergent area of the environmental humanities. We are storytellers, weaving the common roots of our natural heritage into an interdisciplinary narrative. We aim to be a bridge between islands, a thread among branches, a lab for reflection and action.
My Climate Story started as a public storytelling and story-sharing campaign within the Penn community to document individual experiences of climate change. Over time, it has evolved to facilitate broader climate conversations. MCS guides participants in recognizing how local climate impacts are affecting their lives in the here and now. Through instructional videos, live workshops, and growing storybank, MCS aims to shift the perception of climate change from a purely scientific issue to a matter of concern for all communities. MCS recognizes climate literacy as fundamental to a healthy democracy and strives to make discussions about climate change accessible to all.
Additional Media + Resources
Press Contact
Megan Pollin Hernandez
PPEH Program Coordinator
mehe@sas.upenn.edu