In their final writing portfolio, students were invited to submit a short story as well as a creative non-fiction piece. The topics they chose include hope and oppression, natural disasters and the everyday of climate, as well as the complexities of personal activism and community-building. Below, you can find excerpts of their work and reflection process.

Final Portfolios

• Lyndsey Bryden wrote about her struggle with veganism and a diver’s meditations in a speculative climate future
• Radical Creasy wrote about anti-natalism and a mother‘s attempts to make peace with climate realities
• Chloë Fraser wrote about family curses, borders, and compounded vulnerability
• Rachel Habermehl wrote about the urge to take beautiful, incomplete pictures and sisterhood through storms
• Winston Irwin wrote about the shock of the sudden evacuation and river rehabilitation in marginalized communities
• Joe Kapend wrote about the trickle-down effects of drought and living a life of luxury
• Pauline Kraut wrote about finding one’s place in climate activism and making sense of the world as a diver
• Matthew O’Hearn wrote about a nation at war for water and burnt family homes in Australia’s wildfires
• Nina Robertson wrote about the question of children and small disasters in the face of climate change
• Luiza Salek wrote about the role of art, non-linearity, and love in a broken world
• Sanchita Sannigrahi wrote about the struggle to find value in sustainability and flooding in her hometown
• Anna Shubina wrote about learning to recognize injustice and belonging in the climate movement
• Sherry Yu wrote about old age at the end of the world and climate care as an act of love
• Mackenzie Kuenz wrote about urban injustice and denial in front of the fire