How Columbia Students and Local Activists Are Co-Creating Climate Justice
State of the Planet: News from Columbia Climate School
by Roberto Beltrán
For the 17 students who enrolled in the undergraduate course Building Climate Justice: Co-Creative Coastal Resilience Planning, the syllabus wasn’t just a reading list—it was a call to action from the frontlines of the climate crisis.
Led by a teaching team of three faculty members, Paul Gallay, Kytt MacManus and Greg Yetman, supported by teaching assistant Roberto Beltrán, the fall 2025 semester marked a maturing of this hands-on curriculum. What began as an experimental pilot has grown into a highly sought-after model for multidisciplinary education, drawing a mix of undergraduate and graduate students eager to move beyond theory.
A Model of Co-Creation
The course’s core philosophy is simple but radical: environmental policies cannot be imposed from the top down; they must be built from the ground up. This semester, students formed interdisciplinary teams to work directly with two powerhouse community organizations: South Bronx Unite and the Staten Island Urban Center.
