Conference Overview; Updates Coming Soon! 

​We are thrilled to be planning our 6th annual Sustainability Through Student Voices conference! This conference is designed to empower students, teachers, administrators, and guardians to implement grassroots and systemic change around the critical issues of environmental and social justice. Our theme for this year’s conference is Global Perspective, Local Action.

Our conference will feature, as always, student- and teacher-led workshops with a focus on hands-on activism and student leadership in schools. This year we are happy to add an afternoon hands-on volunteering option; details to come!
  • Date: Saturday, May 7th
    • 9:30am-9:45am: Introduction
    • 9:45am-10:30am: Panel + Q/A
    • 10:40am -11:25am: Workshop 1 (6 options)
    • 11:35am -12:20pm: Workshop 2 (6 options)
    • 12:20pm-1:00 pm: Lunch
    • 1:00pm-1:15pm: Closing remarks/instructions
    • 1:15pm-3:15pm: Community action
  • Location: The morning program will be held at The Town School, 540 East 76th Street (76th and York Ave), and our afternoon volunteering activities will be at offsite locations to be announced.
    • Are you outside the NYC area? Contact us about options to engage with conference remotely!
  • Who should attend: students (8th grade and up), educators, school administrators, and anyone interested in finding some new inspiration for sustainability activism and innovation!

Featured Panelists

We will kick off our conference with a great conversation about sustainability activism from four distinct perspectives: 

Workshops Preview as of April 18 (watch this space for more!)

Put your Money Where Your Mission Is
Aligning your school's investments with its mission (for students and teachers)
​Bruce Schlein is Director, Head of Environmental Sustainability Goals (ESG) at OMERS Infrastructure

Sustainability Shark Tank
Pitch your sustainable innovations and Inventions in this interactive session!
​Jonathan Cedar, CEO and Co-Founder at Biolite; Isabelle Miller, Senior at Trinity School

Establishing a successful grassroots organization
Ajani Stella, founder of  Kids Fight Climate Change

Environmentalism on a City Scale 
Marcel Van Ooyen, President and CEO of GrowNYC and former Legislative Director for the New York City Council.

Passion into Practice: A holistic approach to changing the fashion industry
Maryam Albakry, student at Nightingale-Bamford, founder of Muda New York
 
The human stories behind the energy transition
Energy transitions that don't leave people behind. The global impacts of green energy and the steps the world has to take to become carbon neutral.
Yanna Glogov and Luke Resetarits, students from Grace Church

Food Justice in the Lower East Side
This workshop will introduce participants to the issue of food justice, what it means and what it looks like.
Jennifer Bombardier, Education Manager at the Lower East Side Ecology Center

Battling Industrial Farming
A case study about farming and environmental law.
Scott Edwards an experienced environmental lawyer and advocate, Lecturer of Law at Columbia Law School

Start Monday
Impactful initiatives that can be started immediately: micro-projects for green teams. 
Jane Staeger, student at The Town School and Ken Higgins, Sustainability Coordinator at The Town School

Transitioning to Electric School Buses 
Learn about transportation, the largest sector of emissions in the United States, and ways students can combat climate change by creating coalitions.
Joel Grayson, 10th grader at Riverdale

Climate Change in Media 
Taryn Chung, student at Brearley

Greenwashing: The misleading marketing techniques of the food and fashion industries
What do companies really mean when they say “all natural”? “Cage free”? “100% organic”? Learn more about how to identify greenwashing techniques and the ways in which you can ensure your consumption is truly sustainable. 
Zoey Marks, student at Riverdale, and Shiv Goel, co-founder of the Green Consumer Project

Community Service and Open Space Activism Opportunities

We are thrilled to include hands-on service opportunities as part of this year's conference! Join fellow students in one of these opportunities, and even get community service hours! Once you register, we will send a sign-up for community service. Note that all sessions will have a participation cap.  
​
Trash walk with the Trashwalker herself, Anna Sacks, on Friday evening, 5/6 (details to come).

Spring planting and maintenance at Carl Schurz Park after the conference on 5/7

Citizen science and site maintenance with Billion Oyster Project after the conference on 5/7 
​
Road Rules for the Real World: How to get your policy goals in front of the right people. Activism session onsite at The Town School, In the landscape of New York politics, the path to success can be daunting and confusing. How many times have you felt the frustration or even resignation when your best efforts grind to a halt. You have petitioned the Mayor’s office, written your city council representative, and organized a protest. Now what? Join Jennifer Shafran from Green Book Strategies for a unique opportunity to strategize and refine an approach to get your issue in front of the people who can make action happen!
For more than 15 years Jenn has worked at the intersection of policy, politics, and public affairs cultivating deep relationships and institutional knowledge of city and state politics essential to navigating government. Most recently she was a top adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams during his tenure as Brooklyn borough president, serving as his Director of External Affairs and Communications.​

A Special Thanks

We are thrilled to be able to support a fantastic conference while keeping admission fees accessible ($10 for individuals and a maximum of $100 for a school of 10 more), thanks to support from The Town School's Verna Bloom Fund for Sustainability Education. 

Conference Mission Statement

The Sustainability Through Student Voices conference is designed to empower students, teachers, administrators, and families to implement grassroots and systemic change around the critical issues of environmental and social justice. It is through the power of education and our collective voices that will enable us to take the actions necessary to secure a sustainable future for all. ​

2022 Planning Committee Members

Contact the committee with questions or suggestion: stsvconference@gmail.com.

Student Members:
Isabelle Miller - Trinity School
Taryn Chung - The Brearley School
Emma José - Trevor Day School
Caroline Baillie - Hewitt School
Hattie Shapard - The Brearley School
Zachary Lehr - The Browning School
Goldie Zarabi - Hewitt School
Lucy Iselin - Nightingale-Bamford School 
Jane Staeger - The Town School
Jahzara Wilson - Friends Seminary
​Joel Grayson - Riverdale

Faculty Advisors:
Kenneth Higgins - The Town School
Jodie Wilkerson - The Town School
Emilie Wolf - The Browning School

Curious about our conference? Check out highlights from past years:

Have ideas? Want to participate? Email us: stsvconference@gmail.com