planet forward’s frontline climate fellowship program offers students a platform to produce work that illuminates environmental stories from, by, and about underserved communities on the front lines of climate change and environmental inequity. rising gw senior, dre pedemonte, shared her journey as one of the inaugural cohort of fellows.

dre pedemonte is “a writer at heart,” but never branched out into sustainable storytelling until she arrived at gw. she transferred to gw in the spring of 2023 and is majoring in english while minoring in journalism and mass communication. one of the first classes she took was sustainable reporting with professor frank sesno and john sutter in the fall of 2023. she was able to use her background as a commuter student to highlight stories from washington d.c. and the surrounding region, while dipping her feet into the water of sustainable writing.

in this class, students were broken up into teams to write articles about sustainability in the different wards of the district. she was assigned to ward 1, where her team wrote a piece about a local community garden that was facing closure due to lack of funding. “it was an amazing experience to go out into the field and speak with the community and local leaders,” pedemonte said. this story, along with many others in the course, were submitted to planet forward’s storyfest and pedemonte’s team’s story was nominated to be a finalist in the 2024 storyfest cycle. this sparked her initial interest in planet forward and furthered her interest in sustainable storytelling. during an environmental storytelling course in spring of 2024 professor jesse holland jr. introduced pedemonte to the frontline climate fellowship program during his environmental filmmaking course. with her growing interest in sustainability as well as new skills she learned from the course, she decided to apply for the fellowship. 

when pedemonte was accepted into the program she knew she wanted her final story to relate to the chesapeake bay, as pedemonte grew up visiting the bay throughout her childhood. she felt the chesapeake bay touches many states and affects many people and communities in the dmv, making it a topic many people can relate to. she decided her story would be a community-centered piece and she wanted to focus on latino stewardship across the chesapeake bay region. pedemonte wanted to tell the stories about the latino communities’ connection and relationship to the environmental and cultural significance of the bay itself.

the fellowship began on june 10th with a week-long master class on journalism. this week allowed the fellows to meet each other as well as the program mentors while being hosted by gw. the master class featured various workshops where the students learned how to frame stories, create multimedia pieces, and work with scientific and data-based story points. pedemonte saw the first week as “very rigorous, but it helped jump-start our stories and set the tone for the fellowship.” going into the master class week the fellows were assigned to have story ideas in mind. with these ideas they learned how to pitch a story and worked on fine-tuning their original ideas.

after the first week they went back into their communities in order to gather data and begin drafting their community focused stories. the fellowship also included a weekly meeting of the cohort of fellows as well as weekly meetings with their mentors. pedemonte said the research process involved “finding sources, reaching out to multiple people, as it can be hard to hear back, and reporting what they learned.” the last weeks included the wrap-up phase, focused on finishing up the stories and other media products.

at the start of the program each fellow was assigned one mentor to work with. however, they were able to speak with all the mentors in the program to get unique critiques and answer questions related to their stories. pedemonte felt her relationship with her mentor, eva sideris, was very organic and sideris gave her a lot of room to grow while pushing her storytelling abilities. sideris encouraged students to get out of their comfort zones, telling pedemonte, “you are all still students, and you still have so much to learn.”

pedemonte’s story, entitled “here and there: nuestro chesapeake,” allowed her to work with local organizations, including defensores de la cuenca also known as watershed defenders, to encourage, mentor, and inspire latino stewardship within the chesapeake bay. defensores aims to inspire an eco-conscious and diverse community in the chesapeake bay through events like fishing days, canoeing, and also lessons on topics such as water monitoring. pedemonte’s story focuses on highlighting how minority groups can empower restoration efforts in the chesapeake bay through community based organizations. 

having finished the fellowship, pedemonte and the other frontline climate fellows are looking towards the future. pedemonte says the skills she has gained during this program will benefit her immensely as she enters her final year at gw. additionally many of the fellows now are working to pitch the finalized stories they have created to external media outlets outside of planet forward. “throughout the course of this fellowship program, i not only worked with inspiring peers and mentors, but i was pushed to become a better environmental reporter. centering stories around the intersection of community and environmental injustices highlight the powerful community voices that need to be heard. with my finished project, i am proud to have been given the opportunity to do just that. while the summer is ending, i know i am looking forward to continuing my journey as a student, writer, and storyteller.”

this story was originally posted on the george washington alliance for a sustainable future.