Sustainability Focused Study Abroad

CUNY Team at farewell reception hosted by the Consulate General of India
Photo Courtesy of the Consulate General of India

Medgar Evers College Professor Dr. Dereck Skeete and students Noshka Gonzalez and Kamau Straughan are among a team of faculty and students from the City University of New York (CUNY) who are in Mumbai, India, on a study abroad program focused on sustainability. In addition to the three participants from Medgar Evers College, the CUNY team includes two faculty members and 10 students from Bronx Community College; one student from La Guardia Community College; and two students from York College. The group arrived in Mumbai on August 1 and will return August 15.

Professor Skeete and Professors Neal Phillip and Paramita Sen of Bronx Community College are leading the CUNY team in India. Greg Bruce, the principal for Sustainability for the City of Townsville in Queensland, Australia, will join them on this trip. Townsville is the 2012 winner of an IBM Smarter City Challenge Award, and Bruce is the principal architect of the smart city deliverables. Strategies used in Townsville will serve as a model for the CUNY team as they monitor the climate and levels of pollution in Mumbai. Skeete said the students will install two weather stations in Mumbai and work with local groups on deployment of specially constructed backpack weather stations and other low-cost environmental sensors. Additionally, the CUNY team will train the community to take the lead on future sustainability activities such as fuel cells, wind energy and solar energy that could help reduce emissions that cause global warming.

A March 2019 CNN report on the 100 most polluted cities in the world revealed 22 of the top 30 are in India. Skeete said the experience in India will give students Noshka Gonzalez and Kamau Straughan sustainability skills and environmental awareness they can share with the community in Brooklyn.