Urban-serving universities and HBCUs can also play a vital role in the effort to mitigate the effects of climate change on children and other vulnerable populations, particularly when it comes to increasing awareness and training environmental scientists.
“Our next generations are key and they’re really going to be dealing with the continued impact of what we’re only beginning to see now,” said Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, executive director of the Children’s Environmental Health Network.
Witherspoon added that environmental science and health should be on curriculums and that institutions should take advantage of the many speakers available to address these issues on campuses.
Dr. Mary Hayden, a research scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said that her organization offers a summer internship program for minority students called Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research, or SOARS. The program pays for the students’ travel expenses, salaries, and room and board. They can work every summer for four years or more with a scientist or a group of scientists on projects of interest to them, according to Hayden.
NIEHS also offers a number of programs directed at minority students from the high school to postgraduate levels. They include a Summers of Discovery, during which high school and college students can spend the summer working in the institute’s labs.
Details of this and other programs can be found here.
