Youth & EJ Events

Youth and Environmental Justice Events

The Youth for Justice Project (YJP), an afterschool program at Sacred Heart Nativity School in San José, partnered with Local Color SJ, a non-profit organization fostering community development opportunities for artists and creatives, to lead a series of art workshops. Jesica S. Fernández, who oversees YJP and is a member of the Initiative, along with student researchers Ashley Orozco-Plata, Linda Soto, and Naomi Hernandez, facilitated this collaboration. The three art-making workshops supported youth in YJP in creating a mural-like art installation at their school that featured themes of environmental justice at the intersections of social change. With the guidance of local artist Tomas “Wisper” Talamantes, and art-educators Jessica Carmen and Wednesday DeGuzman, youth created individual canvases featuring social and environmental justice issues they care about – from education to economic equity to diversity and racial justice. Each canvas helped form a unified youth-centered mural that was inspired by the 100 Block Mural SJ, a mosaic-tiled mural featuring the artwork of 100 artists in San José. The canvases that were produced by YJP youth were brought together to create a mural that was installed in the hallway of Sacred Heart Nativity School. The mural installation captured youth voices – reflecting their hopes and dreams – along with their calls for social change in their living and learning environments. 

This panel brought together Bay Area environmental justice youth activists Keala Uchoa (Communities for a Better Environment), Citlalli Orozco (HOPE Collaborative), Najiha Al Asmar (Climate Resilient Communities), Amaya Dorman Mackenzie and Ariela Lara (Sunrise Movement), and Emily Cohen Ibañez, director of the documentary Fruits of Labor (2021). Organized and hosted by the Initiative’s Jesica S. Fernández, the event interspersed scenes from the documentary highlighting the story of Ashley Pavon, an agricultural worker and high school student in Watsonville, CA., with the panelists’ reflections on their journeys into environmental justice activism. These testimonies invited the audience to reflect on the complexities of coming of age in a time of climate change, environmental injustices, and economic inequities that intersect with race, gender, age, and immigrant status, and to imagine possibilities for solidarity in action, organizing and radical hope for liberatory and decolonial change. The event was organized by the Initiative and co-sponsored by multiple departments and offices in the College of Arts & Sciences, School of Engineering, Leavey School of Business, and the Office for Multicultural Learning. SCU Presents provided generous support and technical resources.

Watch the recording