Samantha Johnson
Environmentalist | FIU Honors '22
Throughout my time as a Global Learning Student, I have had the opportunity to be involved in so many incredible experiences. I have highlighted my favorites on this page.
ASPEN Climate Conference
I received a student scholarship to attend the ASPEN Ideas Miami Beach Climate conference in May 2022. This experience is something I will never forget. where I had the opportunity to meet so many like-minded people about the climate crisis. I attended talks from so many different speakers including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Al Roker, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, and Reverend Houston Cypress. I learned about organizations like Coral Morphologic and their Coral City Camera, as well as the Sustainable Ocean Alliance and their 222 ocean solutions. I had the opportunity to visit University of Miami's SUSTAIN wave tank that can simulate winds up to cat 5 hurricanes, and had a tour through South Beach about how the City of Miami is working to increase resiliency and mitigation in this area. I listened to (cried through) Emilio Estefan’s brand new song about the climate crisis and haven’t stopped talking about how it moved everyone in that room. I am forever grateful that I was able to attend this conference and hope I have the opportunity to attend next year as well.
Link to song: https://youtu.be/OvAfmWbkmhU
FIU in DC Fly-In
This past October, I had the incredible opportunity of being chosen to attend the FIU in DC Fly-In on the Future of Resilient Communities. After three pre-sessions here at FIU, one at FIU's very own Wall of Wind, one with Dr. Obey speaking on his research with the Sea Level Solutions Center and the need for more funding, and the last with career advisors from USAID and PeaceCorps, we were flown to DC for a jam-packed three days of resilience and policy. I had the opportunity to visit the EPA, USAID, AAAS, the Department of the Interior, the Chamber of Commerce. I had meetings with Kurt Shickman the Director of the Extreme Heat Initiative, Matt Lyttle and Austin Snowbarger who talked about the role of corporations, NGOs and Philanthropy in resilience, Savanna Neb and Jasmine Davenport who told us about their non-profit Our Climate gave us excellent advice on how to go about our Hill Visits when we met with Adam Jardine the Senior Legislative Assistant for Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz. And so much more.
This is truly an experience I will never forget, and everything I have learned will certainly help me with my future endeavors.
Climate Finance Forum
The Climate Finance Forum was hosted at FIU on 5/13/22. Throughout this forum, we had conversations about the threat to South Florida's urban environment, the future of property insurance, financial engineering and climate policy, the Florida Wildlife Corridor, and how AI and data analytics can improve ESG. It brought together experts from FIU and across the country to explore the intersection of financial engineering and environmental resilience. I had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Obey the Director of FIU's Sea Level Solution Center and his research, Dr. Jeffrey Czajkowski from the Center for Insurance Policy and Research and his presentation on the future of property insurance in Florida, Dr. Josh Daskin the Director of Conservation at Archbold Biological Station and his presentation on the Florida Wildlife Corridor, as well as Galen Treuer the Head of Climate Tech and Economic Innovation speaking on Miami-Dade County's Climate Action, among many others. This was an incredibly educational panel about things that I didn't realize overlapped until this conversation. It was very interesting to see how all of these people are from different backgrounds but are still focusing on the same things just in different ways.
Tuesday Times Roundtable
This Global Learning experience called TTR was about Civil Rights in Education: The Legacy of Bob Moses and the Continuation of his Work. It was different and more impactful than any of the other TTR's I attended this semester because the speaker (Maria Lovett, Associate Clinical Professor, Educational Policy Studies at FIU) had it open for conversation and discussion. Around the room there were different quotes from Bob Moses and we had the task to walk around the room, read each one, and stand underneath the one that we felt most connected to. The one I picked is shown in the last picture next to this discussion. The part that stood out to me the most is the last question of "What kind of society will we be?". The discussion that stemmed from this was empowering because we were talking about issues like the "Stop Woke Act" that is dictating what can and can't be taught in classrooms and how that has impacted my role as a Teaching Assistant. We also discussed how the country is not the same as it was 10 years ago and that we're not okay with the path that we are going down. This is a conversation that I will never forget because it was centered around people who are passionate about the same issues I am and who are also fighting for change in the world around us.