Students from universities across the nation got a sampling of the academic public health experience, from writing a proposal to presenting key findings from their work during APHA 2025.

Each year APHA’s Center for Climate, Health and Equity recognizes five individual students or student groups as Student Champions for Climate Justice. The initiative offers students the opportunity to shape the conversation about climate justice within and across academic communities and inspire their peers to take action. 

When applying to become Student Champions for Climate Justice, students are required to plan a campus event that highlights climate change and its impacts on health. Proposals need to include a breakdown of how the students would budget the $500 award if they were selected as Student Champions, their potential event audience and methods for measuring the event’s impact, among other details.

Students submit their proposals and apply in the spring with the goal of completing their projects and assessing the outcomes by the following fall.

A group of students in the medical sciences program at the University of Puerto Rico — Melanie Diaz-Bonet, Lenulisy Rosado-Estrada, Dianivette Rolón-Cruz and Deliris Agosto-Centeno — held an art exhibition on campus featuring artworks that express sentiments about climate injustice.

Camille McComas, Caleb Rivera, Melissa Kahili-Heede, Kiʻilaweau Aweau and Mākoa Miura from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa held a symposium that examined the health impacts of climate change through the perspective of Indigenous populations, highlighting the cultural and spiritual connections people have with the environment.

“Our ancestral knowledge is not just historical; it is healing the land and people now,” McComas said. “(Native Hawaiians) are mobilizing within their own communities, working beyond and often against barriers and systems that continue to prioritize profit and extraction over the well-being of land and people.”

Students from Louisiana State University, New Orleans, including Sarah Northup, Laiba Iqbal, Brittany Knoerzer and Sarah Melton, held an interactive workshop with local environmental group Green Light New Orleans to install a rain barrel in the campus’ student garden in conjunction with an educational presentation on stormwater management, water conservation and flood prevention.

Students at the University of Arizona held an emergency preparedness event that featured games and activities, including an emergency kit building activity, and students at Hofstra University hosted an educational discussion on heat stroke prevention.

The Student Champions were featured in the Emerging Scholars Theater during the Annual Meeting, where students presented their work.

Photo: Camille McComas, courtesy Mary Stortstrom.