Jennifer’s project is designed to engage college-aged students in climate change education and action by working with members of the KSU chapter of Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS) to continue a project that started in 2013. In the fall of 2014, MANRRS students will receive in-depth trainings on climate change basics, as well as workshops on how best to teach the basics of climate change. The MANRRS group is a motivated bunch of students who are ready and willing to share knowledge gained with faculty, staff, and other student members of the community. A group of MANRRS students on KSU’s campus will be trained so that they may design and create an educational campaign about the simple changes individuals can make to reduce CO₂ emissions on campus and in the community. Throughout the trainings on climate science, students will learn how to identify common daily behaviors that could be modified to curb CO₂ emissions and will learn how to lower their energy use at home and in their vehicles to become better stewards of our climate. At the culmination of trainings, MANRRS students will select an area of focus and develop an educational campaign, presentations, and materials that they will work to disseminate throughout the remainder of the 2014-15 academic year. The goal is for the group to do community and public school presentations, as well as to disseminate information at KSU campus events such as Earth Day, campus open houses, and other local, regional, and national events where MANRRS has a presence. 

Jennifer Hubbard-Sánchez serves as the State Specialist for Sustainable Programs for the College of Agriculture, Food Science, and Sustainable Systems at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, KY. She holds an M.A. in Mexican Anthropological Studies from the Universidad de las Américas in Puebla, México, and a B.A. in Spanish and Liberal Arts from Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, VT. She will complete her M.S. in Environmental Studies in 2015. Her thesis research is on the social construction of climate change and education in Kentucky. Jennifer’s work at Kentucky State University focuses on creating and implementing sustainability, environmental, and climate change education with a broad range of communities. Her focus is on providing opportunities for diverse and multilingual audiences so that all people can be empowered through access to culturally relevant ways to live greener, healthier lives, while appreciating and learning more about the physical environment that sustains us. Through her work at KSU, Jennifer has been involved with the Kentucky Association for Environmental Education (KAEE) by serving as a Board Member since 2013, and is co-leader of the KY Environmental Education Consortium. She is a member of the 2014 graduating class of Kentucky’s Professional Environmental Educator Certification course and has been a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Steward’s Education Project since early 2013. She has lived and studied in Spain, México, and Costa Rica, has implemented youth development programming in México and Honduras, and traveled several times to visit her husband’s family in Perú. Jennifer lives in Lexington with her husband Richard, and their two children: Diego, who is 8, and Kaira Luciana, who is 2.