Students awarded $10K to document, ‘uplift voices’ of those impacted by climate change

A group of Clark students have received a $10,000 Projects for Peace award to document the experiences of young people in Central Mexico as they deal with the impacts and uncertainty of climate change.

The project team includes four undergraduate students — Angel Rojas ’25 (project director), Abby Rhodes ’24, Aidan Hilaire ’26, and Zeke Fairley ’25 — who will serve as the on-the-ground documentary team, as well as two graduating students, Gyani Pradhan Wong Ah Sui ’24 and Nicole Overbaugh ’24, who will handle pre- and post-production work (editing, outreach, and scheduling).

“The potential impacts of future climate change are uncertain and so are even harder to understand,” the team wrote in their project proposal. “Indisputably, climate change impacts on health, water, food, livelihoods, and properties represent one of the most pressing threats to peace and security — exacerbating and compounding the threats posed by social, political, and economic conflicts and instabilities. Those with most at stake are the youth, yet they are not actively involved in the decisions about climate change and their future.”

The group is mentored by Soren Sorensen, associate teaching professor of screen studies, and Tim Downs, associate professor in the Department of Sustainability and Social Justice. The video project is an offshoot of a major National Science Foundation-funded climate change research study that is led by Downs.

The goals of the film are “to both uplift the voices of the identified communities most impacted by climate change and document the parent project, for the combined purposes of education and awareness,” the students said. They hope to create a documentary film that tells the human story of the climate-change impacts in Central Mexico and will be used for public education and disseminated widely.

Their project is an example of “working together for a just, sustainable, climate-responsive future for all” — which, in their application, they shared as their working definition of “peace.”

The Projects for Peace students have collaborated before: Rhodes, Pradhan Wong Ah Sui, Overbaugh, and Fairley created a film production company, Yonic Production Co., in 2023, and Hilaire, Pradhan Wong Ah Sui, Rhodes, Rojas, and Fairley have all worked together on the executive board of the Clark Film Production Society. Fairley, Pradhan Wong Ah Sui, and Rojas each have experience in documentary film directing, and Overbaugh and Rhodes have worked on professional film sets.

“The major inspirations for this project come from our deeply held concerns about how climate change exacerbates social injustice, and our appreciation of film art for the social good,” the filmmakers wrote.

Each year, Projects for Peace awards $1.25 million to student leaders who are developing innovative, community-centered, and scalable responses to the world’s most pressing issues. The 2024 cohort is made up of 129 projects nominated by 94 partner institutions. The projects will take place in 69 countries around the world, and in 14 U.S. states.