Announcing the Awardees of the Climate Hub Grant Program
This message was sent to all faculty and staff on February 13, 2024.
The Environmental Collaboratory is pleased to support the formation of four collaborative teams of faculty, students and professional staff for research, creative and scholastic endeavors that will further catalyze Drexel’s Areas of Excellence & Opportunity (AEOs) in Sustainability and Climate Resilience. Supported by The Waverly Street Foundation, The Environmental Collaboratory's Climate Hub Grant Program promotes ideation and collaboration around project ideas aimed at strengthening Drexel’s commitment to sustainability and climate resilience, creating new connections across academic and administrative units, and incorporating community knowledge and expertise with the potential to scale at levels meaningful to Drexel’s 2030 Strategic Plan.
The Climate Hub Grant Program was shaped by the input and experience of over 45 faculty, students and staff who submitted ideas, convened to identify areas of overlap and synergy, and ultimately formed teams to advance meaningful projects. We are pleased to support the following teams with funding to continue to develop their projects through the 2024-2025 academic year and beyond:
Drexel University Climate Pedagogy Incubator for Community-Based Learning
Project Team: Steve Vasquez Dolph (College of Arts and Sciences), Annette Gadegbeku (College of Medicine and Dornsife School of Public Health), Casey Hanna (School of Education), Magdalena Maczynska (Teaching and Learning Center), Scott Quitel (Close School of Entrepreneurship)
This project has established a seven-week transdisciplinary faculty learning community designed to foster relationships, resource-sharing, and collaborations around climate justice education — empowering faculty with the knowledge, connections, and cultural humility needed to develop responsive and reciprocal environmentally focused classrooms, courses and curricula. Faculty interested in joining the Spring 2024 Incubator cohort should complete this interest and availability form by Wednesday, February 14, 2024.
Philadelphia 2.0: Community-Driven Visioning for the Future Climate
Project Team: Ben Kalina (Westphal College of Media Arts & Design – Film and TV), Jessica Creane (Westphal – Game Design), James McKinney (Westphal – Music Industry), Franco Montalto (College of Engineering), Naida Montes (Community Engagement Practitioner)
This project will explore how storytelling, visualization and interactive tools, including film, virtual/augmented reality, AI and games, could help Philadelphia citizens reimagine the futures of their neighborhoods and inform a community-driven design process for the city’s built environment. It aims to leverage the creative and scientific resources of the team and Drexel to enable communities to present their own visions for sustainable and climate resilient communities.
Curriculum for Sustainable Food Systems Innovation
Project Team: Jonathan Deutsch (College of Nursing and Health Professions (CNHP) – Food and Hospitality Management), Brandy-Joe Milliron (CNHP – Nutrition Sciences), Scott Quitel (Entrepreneurship), Hasan Ayaz (School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems), Rajneesh Suri (Provost’s Office and LeBow College of Business), Rachel Sherman (CNHP – Drexel Food Lab), Caroline Schauer (Engineering), Dee Nicholas (Westphal – Design Research)
This project aims to leverage the University’s diverse sustainability course offerings to develop an inter-college sustainable food systems and built environment undergraduate program. This University-wide initiative will enhance connections among current offerings, promote classes across colleges, and create opportunities for students to conduct research with faculty, participate in community outreach, and pilot their own projects in an incubator space.
Climate Hub Student Project Fund
Project Lead: Kacy Gao (College of Arts and Sciences student and TEC Co-op), with support from students in the Colleges of Computing & Informatics, Nursing and Health Professions, Engineering, Arts and Sciences, Media Arts & Design and Business.
This project will create a small-grant program (<$5,000) funding up to five cross-disciplinary, student-led projects with faculty mentors, spanning climate and sustainability, environmental and justice-based topics. TEC will facilitate faculty-student pairing for the projects, with its co-op student serving as its inaugural student project lead. View more information on our website.
We thank all who contributed to Climate Hub Grant process and project formation, and look forward to sharing future opportunities to get involved with The Environmental Collaboratory and the Sustainability and Climate Resilience AEO.
Congratulations to our awardees!
The Environmental Collaboratory