Sunday, June 1, 2025
6/1/2025
Bronx Environmental Health Summer Training for Justice - Project Summary We seek to develop the Bronx Environmental Health Summer Training for Justice (BestJustice) program for high school students in environmental justice communities in the Bronx and Manhattan in New York City. These communities not only experience some of the highest air and noise pollution levels in New York City but are also less likely to have members of their community pursue higher education, which in turn contributes to their continued marginalization and disinvestment. The BestJustice program expands the scope of an existing Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) initiative between a public South Bronx high school (X223), the Center for Environmental Health and Justice in Northern Manhattan at Columbia University, and South Bronx Unite (SBU), a local non-profit grassroot organization. In this partnership, we introduced a year-long STEM course, in which students received hands-on training to build air pollution and noise monitors to then deploy them in the South Bronx through a citizen science after school program at X223. Following a suggestion of X223, we compensated a small group of students for their effort by accepting them at no cost into Columbia University’s Summer High School Academic Program for Engineers (SHAPE), a 3-week long STEM summer program for high school students. To sustain and expand this partnership and the educational opportunities for the students, the BestJustice program seeks to formalize these efforts through a structured, on-site summer environmental health science (EHS) research program. Each year, a group of students (n=12) will receive training that prepares them for a career in EHS and allows them to conduct research that incorporates environmental justice principles. Our goals are the following: 1) Provide accessible, locally relevant summer research experiences in EHS. For eight weeks during the summer, the students will a) participate in the SHAPE program through project-based courses in engineering that are relevant to biomedical and health sciences, b) obtain environmental justice training, and c) conduct locally relevant EHS research mentored by Columbia University faculty and graduate students, South Bronx Unite staff, and high school teachers. 2) Provide training in scientific writing, communication, and research translation, including presentations to local communities and to their high school science class and/or school. 3) Provide students with the skills needed to create competitive applications for admission into undergraduate programs or technical schools, especially fields relevant for EHS/STEM, and to provide guidance throughout this process to ensure their success. The proposed BestJustice program, building upon a 3-year-old STEM initiative between Columbia University, our partnering school X223, and South Bronx Unite, will have a high chance of increasing the number of local students from marginalized backgrounds that pursue careers in EHS and other STEM fields.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).