One of the most powerful things about the Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement is how it has mobilized and trained thousands of students and young people to organize in the fight against the climate crisis. Our targets expect us to stop organizing after graduation. They are waiting for our leaders to graduate so our campaigns will weaken, but we refuse to graduate out of the movement. The state of the crisis demands that we continue organizing for climate and social justice long after we leave campus. Through the Organizing Pledge Project, we are sharing stories about what brings us to this work, and why we are committed to organizing for the long-term.
Lina Blount, Bryn Mawr College '13
Dear friends, family, and fellow youth organizers and fighters,
My name is Lina Blount and I’m a Bryn Mawr Graduate from 2013. I studied Growth and Structure of Cities, with a minor in Environmental Studies. And in the Spring of 2011 I helped found a divestment campaign at my campus.
Since I have graduated, I have worked in the non-profit sector as an organizer fighting the fracking industry here in PA. I have also continued work with the Earth Quaker Action team doing non-violent direct action, recently helping the team to win a campaign to get PNC Bank to cease investments in mountaintop removal coal mining.
And today, I renew my pledge to This Work.
I pledge that I will fight the fossil fuel industries that are profiting of the destruction of communities and the destruction of the climate.
I pledge to work with divestment organizers and alums to challenge the pillars of power holding up this extractive and exploitive industry. I pledge to challenge the institutions holding this extractive and exploitive industry.
I pledge to see the intersectionality of This Work—to see how racist and classist systems are propped up by this extractive, plantation-foundation capitalism.
I pledge to do this work for the long haul.
I pledge to take care of myself and invest in knowing myself and my fellow organizers so to support the health of this long-term movement.
I pledge to act thoughtfully and to learn from actions.
I pledge to respect my fellow organizers and recognize how to be powerful in listening as much as I am powerful in speaking.
I pledge to seek out learning at every step of the process—so that our movement can evolve and grow.
I pledge to look with clear eyes at the destruction we have already wrought on the world—and I pledge in that seeing to act still with more love and courage than fear.
With intention,
Lina Blount
Bryn Mawr 13'
#BankOnUs #CantStopWontStop
My name is Lina Blount and I’m a Bryn Mawr Graduate from 2013. I studied Growth and Structure of Cities, with a minor in Environmental Studies. And in the Spring of 2011 I helped found a divestment campaign at my campus.
Since I have graduated, I have worked in the non-profit sector as an organizer fighting the fracking industry here in PA. I have also continued work with the Earth Quaker Action team doing non-violent direct action, recently helping the team to win a campaign to get PNC Bank to cease investments in mountaintop removal coal mining.
And today, I renew my pledge to This Work.
I pledge that I will fight the fossil fuel industries that are profiting of the destruction of communities and the destruction of the climate.
I pledge to work with divestment organizers and alums to challenge the pillars of power holding up this extractive and exploitive industry. I pledge to challenge the institutions holding this extractive and exploitive industry.
I pledge to see the intersectionality of This Work—to see how racist and classist systems are propped up by this extractive, plantation-foundation capitalism.
I pledge to do this work for the long haul.
I pledge to take care of myself and invest in knowing myself and my fellow organizers so to support the health of this long-term movement.
I pledge to act thoughtfully and to learn from actions.
I pledge to respect my fellow organizers and recognize how to be powerful in listening as much as I am powerful in speaking.
I pledge to seek out learning at every step of the process—so that our movement can evolve and grow.
I pledge to look with clear eyes at the destruction we have already wrought on the world—and I pledge in that seeing to act still with more love and courage than fear.
With intention,
Lina Blount
Bryn Mawr 13'
#BankOnUs #CantStopWontStop
Nathan Malachowski, Allegheny College '14
Dear Fellow Climate Justice Organizers,
My name is Nathan Malachowski, and I am an alum of Allegheny College Class of 2014. Now I am a community organizer with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement working to block the construction of the proposed Bakken Pipeline, which would threaten Iowa communities and the health and well-being of current and future generations.
When I was a student, myself and fellow organizers kick-started Divest Allegheny, and pushed for fossil fuel divestment at Allegheny College. The fossil fuel industry and college administrators are waiting for the student movement for fossil fuel divestment to fade away, but I am writing to pledge my commitment to this movement for the long haul.
As a senior at Allegheny College, Divest Allegheny was a shining ray of hope. It was my first “campaign” as an organizer, and the promise of winning and holding administrators accountable to our values drove me in the fight. The dissonance between Allegheny’s actions and mission fueled the fire- how dare Allegheny claim to protect the long-term interest of its students while failing to play an active role in the fight for climate justice?
Unfortunately, without adequate training or connection to the fossil fuel divestment movement, the campaign often felt small and inconsequential. Graduating and reconnecting with the Divestment Student Network has proven to me how wrong I was.
As an organizer with Iowa CCI, I find myself going head to head with the fossil fuel industry once again as we organize against the Bakken Pipeline. And now that my work is more focused outside of the university sphere, I see the need for student movements to connect to community organizations like the one I’m a part of. Iowa CCI is fighting the fossil fuel industry from advancing in our communities- students across Iowa are launching efforts to divest from the very same corporate giants. The possibility of building a connected movement that fights the fossil fuel industry on all fronts- from students to landowners in rural Iowa- is what drives me to become the most powerful organizer I can become. We need synergy in our work if we are going to stop the fossil fuel industry and win a just future for all people.
For this reason, I pledge to remain committed to the movement for fossil fuel divestment and continue to organize for climate justice far beyond college graduation. I am dedicated to building the power of our movement over the long-term because injustice is not an investment. I will not graduate out of this movement.
In addition to continuing to organize, I also pledge to withhold donations from Allegheny College until it commits to divestment from the top 200 fossil fuel companies with the largest reserves, in line with the demands of Divest Allegheny.
I take this commitment seriously, and I hope that you will also pledge to fight for the future of current students and of generations to come. Will you join me?
Onwards,
Nathan Malachowski
Allegheny College ‘14
Community Organizer
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
#BankOnUs #CantStopWontStop
#DivestAllegheny #KeepitintheGround
My name is Nathan Malachowski, and I am an alum of Allegheny College Class of 2014. Now I am a community organizer with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement working to block the construction of the proposed Bakken Pipeline, which would threaten Iowa communities and the health and well-being of current and future generations.
When I was a student, myself and fellow organizers kick-started Divest Allegheny, and pushed for fossil fuel divestment at Allegheny College. The fossil fuel industry and college administrators are waiting for the student movement for fossil fuel divestment to fade away, but I am writing to pledge my commitment to this movement for the long haul.
As a senior at Allegheny College, Divest Allegheny was a shining ray of hope. It was my first “campaign” as an organizer, and the promise of winning and holding administrators accountable to our values drove me in the fight. The dissonance between Allegheny’s actions and mission fueled the fire- how dare Allegheny claim to protect the long-term interest of its students while failing to play an active role in the fight for climate justice?
Unfortunately, without adequate training or connection to the fossil fuel divestment movement, the campaign often felt small and inconsequential. Graduating and reconnecting with the Divestment Student Network has proven to me how wrong I was.
As an organizer with Iowa CCI, I find myself going head to head with the fossil fuel industry once again as we organize against the Bakken Pipeline. And now that my work is more focused outside of the university sphere, I see the need for student movements to connect to community organizations like the one I’m a part of. Iowa CCI is fighting the fossil fuel industry from advancing in our communities- students across Iowa are launching efforts to divest from the very same corporate giants. The possibility of building a connected movement that fights the fossil fuel industry on all fronts- from students to landowners in rural Iowa- is what drives me to become the most powerful organizer I can become. We need synergy in our work if we are going to stop the fossil fuel industry and win a just future for all people.
For this reason, I pledge to remain committed to the movement for fossil fuel divestment and continue to organize for climate justice far beyond college graduation. I am dedicated to building the power of our movement over the long-term because injustice is not an investment. I will not graduate out of this movement.
In addition to continuing to organize, I also pledge to withhold donations from Allegheny College until it commits to divestment from the top 200 fossil fuel companies with the largest reserves, in line with the demands of Divest Allegheny.
I take this commitment seriously, and I hope that you will also pledge to fight for the future of current students and of generations to come. Will you join me?
Onwards,
Nathan Malachowski
Allegheny College ‘14
Community Organizer
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
#BankOnUs #CantStopWontStop
#DivestAllegheny #KeepitintheGround
Miles Goodrich, Bowdoin College '15
Dear student climate justice organizers everywhere,
My name is Miles Goodrich and come May, I will graduate from Bowdoin College. The turning of the tassels at commencement will mark the end of one chapter in my life. It will not, however, mark the end of my organizing for a just and sustainable future through fossil fuel divestment. I am graduating from Bowdoin; I am not graduating from the climate justice movement.
The quick turnover of students on campus from orientation to graduation means that administrators need only wait out matriculated rabble rousers: if a demanding academic curriculum won't silence the issue of the day, the logic goes, then maybe handing it a diploma will. The task of the campus organizer, then, consists of simultaneous effacement and empowerment. Constant leadership development combats the vagaries of campus graduation rates while building power for change. If I am unnecessary for the smooth functioning of Bowdoin's divestment campaign, I will have done my job.
And yet this does not relieve me of responsibility. Dangling off oil rigs—sexy direct action—first attracted me to activism. But it is organizing, the building of resilient relationships and deliberate communities, that commits me to the movement for the long haul.
I saw my first coal plant in Ohio on a training program for organizers. It was dark, satanic, and horrifying, something that should have been relegated to imagination, not dreamed up and built next to humans. The danger the coal plant posed to the community around it was sickening—literally. I felt nauseous despite spending only a few hours roaming around a closed down high school, which had been abandoned due to its proximity to the fumes. A weathered sign solemnly commanded “no idling,” a warning to bus drivers to turn off their engines while waiting in the school parking lot. The noxious clouds from the plant's stacks continued to stream out, unabated.
Against the coal factory that seemed to consume the landscape with its dominating stature, I felt tiny, insignificant, and helpless. My purpose that day, however, was to meet a real-life organizer. Jane, a member of the community who had cut her teeth taking on fracking projects, shared her story with me. Though she had been diagnosed with breast cancer—a disease undoubtedly linked to her proximity to the plant—she still energetically organized her neighbors against the toxins endangering their homes. Organizing does not pay her medical bills, but it targets the source of them. Anything a corporation can build, even as imposing and terrifying as a coal plant, can be torn down by real people standing united with their communities. Then, she said, the real work of building something new, and better, begins.
Crucial to organizing is bearing witness, which stems from the Quaker tradition of practical theology. Bearing witness means opening ones' eyes to injustice, particularly to those innate to extractive economies which exploit both people and planet. To bear witness is to refuse to look away out of convenience or apathy. Once Jane opened my eyes to the harsh realities of fossil fuel production, I knew I would not be able to close them.
Bowdoin has started asking graduating seniors to donate to the College. The most important lesson I have learned on campus is to value both friendships based on shared principles and intentional communities founded on common vision. I have learned that tempered patience can lead to urgent action, and that strategy is destiny. In short, I have learned the importance of organizing in bending the moral arc of the universe a little more towards justice.
It is a lesson worth so much to me that rather than give money, I will give the rest of my life.
With hope,
Miles
Bowdoin College 2015
#BankOnUs #CantStopWontStop
My name is Miles Goodrich and come May, I will graduate from Bowdoin College. The turning of the tassels at commencement will mark the end of one chapter in my life. It will not, however, mark the end of my organizing for a just and sustainable future through fossil fuel divestment. I am graduating from Bowdoin; I am not graduating from the climate justice movement.
The quick turnover of students on campus from orientation to graduation means that administrators need only wait out matriculated rabble rousers: if a demanding academic curriculum won't silence the issue of the day, the logic goes, then maybe handing it a diploma will. The task of the campus organizer, then, consists of simultaneous effacement and empowerment. Constant leadership development combats the vagaries of campus graduation rates while building power for change. If I am unnecessary for the smooth functioning of Bowdoin's divestment campaign, I will have done my job.
And yet this does not relieve me of responsibility. Dangling off oil rigs—sexy direct action—first attracted me to activism. But it is organizing, the building of resilient relationships and deliberate communities, that commits me to the movement for the long haul.
I saw my first coal plant in Ohio on a training program for organizers. It was dark, satanic, and horrifying, something that should have been relegated to imagination, not dreamed up and built next to humans. The danger the coal plant posed to the community around it was sickening—literally. I felt nauseous despite spending only a few hours roaming around a closed down high school, which had been abandoned due to its proximity to the fumes. A weathered sign solemnly commanded “no idling,” a warning to bus drivers to turn off their engines while waiting in the school parking lot. The noxious clouds from the plant's stacks continued to stream out, unabated.
Against the coal factory that seemed to consume the landscape with its dominating stature, I felt tiny, insignificant, and helpless. My purpose that day, however, was to meet a real-life organizer. Jane, a member of the community who had cut her teeth taking on fracking projects, shared her story with me. Though she had been diagnosed with breast cancer—a disease undoubtedly linked to her proximity to the plant—she still energetically organized her neighbors against the toxins endangering their homes. Organizing does not pay her medical bills, but it targets the source of them. Anything a corporation can build, even as imposing and terrifying as a coal plant, can be torn down by real people standing united with their communities. Then, she said, the real work of building something new, and better, begins.
Crucial to organizing is bearing witness, which stems from the Quaker tradition of practical theology. Bearing witness means opening ones' eyes to injustice, particularly to those innate to extractive economies which exploit both people and planet. To bear witness is to refuse to look away out of convenience or apathy. Once Jane opened my eyes to the harsh realities of fossil fuel production, I knew I would not be able to close them.
Bowdoin has started asking graduating seniors to donate to the College. The most important lesson I have learned on campus is to value both friendships based on shared principles and intentional communities founded on common vision. I have learned that tempered patience can lead to urgent action, and that strategy is destiny. In short, I have learned the importance of organizing in bending the moral arc of the universe a little more towards justice.
It is a lesson worth so much to me that rather than give money, I will give the rest of my life.
With hope,
Miles
Bowdoin College 2015
#BankOnUs #CantStopWontStop
Sara Blazevic, Swarthmore College '15
Dear fellow youth organizers,
My name is Sara Blazevic and I am a senior at Swarthmore College. I am an organizer with Swarthmore Mountain Justice, a part of the movement for fossil fuel divestment and climate justice. The fossil fuel industry and college administrators are waiting for student organizing to subside as we graduate, but I am writing to pledge my commitment to this movement for the long haul.
I’ve been involved in climate and environmental justice work since I was sixteen, when I volunteered at an urban farm and community center in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans for two summers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I came to college looking for a political community because of my experiences there, and have been involved in the divestment campaign since my first week of college. I have seen this campaign go through many stages and phases, and I have helped build this movement from the ground up, but it didn’t really hit home for me what I was organizing for until late last spring, when the largest storm since the beginning of weather records hit Croatia, where my family is from.
The storm brought the heaviest rains in 120 years, and with them, thousands of landslides that wiped out villages and displaced land mines left over from the Bosnian War. Serbia and Bosnia were hit hardest, with eastern Croatia affected as well. I watched the storm develop from the other side of the world and found myself returning to images of that place that I have always loved so deeply. I pictured the river Dobra, next to my family’s home in rural Croatia, the home that my grandmother grew up in, that my uncles were born in, and that was bombed during the war, rebuilt by my dad ten years ago on the old foundations.
I was overwhelmed with fear and with my memories of this place that defined my childhood, my family, and my ancestry. I was terrified that this place that contained so many of my roots could be wiped out in minutes, picked up and swept away by water. The thought was too painful to bear.
The storm didn’t make it to central Croatia - it died out before it reached my family’s home, but not before displacing thousands of people, killing hundreds, and causing damages that exceeded those of the Yugoslav wars. I remember thinking to myself, This is what we mean when we talk about the climate crisis. This is what it looks like when communities that are deemed too marginal to be worth saving get wiped out.
I felt incredibly helpless. I know that in that moment, I could have chosen to close my computer screen and forget there was ever any storm. But I didn’t make that choice. I thought about the organizers I met when I volunteered in New Orleans, people who had lost everything, just like thousands of Serbs, Bosnians, and Croats were losing everything. They had inspired me by making the choice to continue taking care of each other in the face of uncertainty and of terrifying odds. I knew that I could make that same choice, and so, instead of being cowed by my fear of the future, I committed myself to fighting harder than ever, with the intention of organizing for the long haul.
That is why I pledge to remain committed to the movement for fossil fuel divestment and continue to organize for climate justice far beyond college graduation. I am dedicated to building the power of our movement over the long-term because injustice is not an investment. I will not graduate out of this movement.
In the face of fear and uncertainty about my future, I believe that we are capable of building a more just, stable, and resilient world, and that to avoid working towards such a vision would be a waste of our own power. I believe that we must do this work, because without this work we would lose our collective humanity.
In addition to continuing to organize, I also pledge to withhold donations from Swarthmore College until it commits to divestment from the top 200 fossil fuel companies with the largest reserves.
I take this commitment seriously, and I hope that you will also pledge to fight for the future of current students and of generations to come. Will you join me?
Onwards with love,
Sara Blazevic
Swarthmore College 2015
Swarthmore Mountain Justice
#BankOnUs #CantStopWontStop
My name is Sara Blazevic and I am a senior at Swarthmore College. I am an organizer with Swarthmore Mountain Justice, a part of the movement for fossil fuel divestment and climate justice. The fossil fuel industry and college administrators are waiting for student organizing to subside as we graduate, but I am writing to pledge my commitment to this movement for the long haul.
I’ve been involved in climate and environmental justice work since I was sixteen, when I volunteered at an urban farm and community center in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans for two summers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I came to college looking for a political community because of my experiences there, and have been involved in the divestment campaign since my first week of college. I have seen this campaign go through many stages and phases, and I have helped build this movement from the ground up, but it didn’t really hit home for me what I was organizing for until late last spring, when the largest storm since the beginning of weather records hit Croatia, where my family is from.
The storm brought the heaviest rains in 120 years, and with them, thousands of landslides that wiped out villages and displaced land mines left over from the Bosnian War. Serbia and Bosnia were hit hardest, with eastern Croatia affected as well. I watched the storm develop from the other side of the world and found myself returning to images of that place that I have always loved so deeply. I pictured the river Dobra, next to my family’s home in rural Croatia, the home that my grandmother grew up in, that my uncles were born in, and that was bombed during the war, rebuilt by my dad ten years ago on the old foundations.
I was overwhelmed with fear and with my memories of this place that defined my childhood, my family, and my ancestry. I was terrified that this place that contained so many of my roots could be wiped out in minutes, picked up and swept away by water. The thought was too painful to bear.
The storm didn’t make it to central Croatia - it died out before it reached my family’s home, but not before displacing thousands of people, killing hundreds, and causing damages that exceeded those of the Yugoslav wars. I remember thinking to myself, This is what we mean when we talk about the climate crisis. This is what it looks like when communities that are deemed too marginal to be worth saving get wiped out.
I felt incredibly helpless. I know that in that moment, I could have chosen to close my computer screen and forget there was ever any storm. But I didn’t make that choice. I thought about the organizers I met when I volunteered in New Orleans, people who had lost everything, just like thousands of Serbs, Bosnians, and Croats were losing everything. They had inspired me by making the choice to continue taking care of each other in the face of uncertainty and of terrifying odds. I knew that I could make that same choice, and so, instead of being cowed by my fear of the future, I committed myself to fighting harder than ever, with the intention of organizing for the long haul.
That is why I pledge to remain committed to the movement for fossil fuel divestment and continue to organize for climate justice far beyond college graduation. I am dedicated to building the power of our movement over the long-term because injustice is not an investment. I will not graduate out of this movement.
In the face of fear and uncertainty about my future, I believe that we are capable of building a more just, stable, and resilient world, and that to avoid working towards such a vision would be a waste of our own power. I believe that we must do this work, because without this work we would lose our collective humanity.
In addition to continuing to organize, I also pledge to withhold donations from Swarthmore College until it commits to divestment from the top 200 fossil fuel companies with the largest reserves.
I take this commitment seriously, and I hope that you will also pledge to fight for the future of current students and of generations to come. Will you join me?
Onwards with love,
Sara Blazevic
Swarthmore College 2015
Swarthmore Mountain Justice
#BankOnUs #CantStopWontStop
P.D. Gantert, CU Boulder '16
My Fellow Climate
Activists and Justice Organizers,
I am an organizer with Fossil Free CU, a campaign in the movement for fossil fuel divestment and climate justice. I began organizing for divestment two years ago, and know that the fossil fuel industry and my college administrators are waiting for student organizing to
subside as we graduate; I am writing to pledge my commitment to this movement for the long haul. Through this, I speak not only to the great challenge that lies ahead, but to the revitalization that comes through movement building. Our movement has a lot of work to do if we are to overcome current and future global destitution, but I believe in the soulful healing that
can happen along the way.
My father was an intimidating figure in my house. His heavy presence did a lot of harm to our relationship and my family, and left me without meaningful mentorship for most of my life.
My father did not have the support he needed when growing up, either, something that contributed to his own deep emotional trenches that were to be filled with substance abuse in his younger years. His leaning on capitalistic metrics of success in search of happiness and validation depreciated the significance of the relationships he held, and left me without support.
The same institutions that have corrupted our democracies and condemned the lives of millions also left me without a supportive parent. For this reason, I need climate justice.
I have found so much love and vigor in our community, it has given me space to reflect and work through my experiences to become a more whole person. This work has revitalized me. I want to support others as they bridge the voids in their lives because my vision for our
world cannot be lived or created by damaged people. Ours is not only a movement of throwing away the bad and discarding the ugly, but of deep emotional healing and reconnection. This is a movement for change that reaches deeper than the individual campaigns it consists of, and into the lives of the people that comprise it.
Though I have only one year left before graduating, I have no intention to stop organizing. Boulder has a history of student activism, but one that is neatly buried by the existing administration and allowed to be forgotten. This is a student movement to build power,
and I am determined to shift the way my peers within the CU system relate to our administration. I work to train youth organizers and activists, build community and deepen consciousness. Just as world leaders will not take steps necessary to steer us from destitution,
my administration refuses to stand for justice and end its support of the most damaging industry in our history.
I pledge to remain committed to the movement for fossil fuel divestment and continue to organize for climate justice, because my dedication to this work cannot be bookended by graduation. I am dedicated to building the power of our movement over the long-term because injustice is not an investment. I will not graduate out of this movement. I take to heart this commitment, and hope that you will also pledge to fight for the future of current students and of generations to come. Will you join me?
With love and hope,
P.D. Gantert
University of Colorado, Boulder
Class of 2016
#CantStopWontStop #BankOnUs!
I am an organizer with Fossil Free CU, a campaign in the movement for fossil fuel divestment and climate justice. I began organizing for divestment two years ago, and know that the fossil fuel industry and my college administrators are waiting for student organizing to
subside as we graduate; I am writing to pledge my commitment to this movement for the long haul. Through this, I speak not only to the great challenge that lies ahead, but to the revitalization that comes through movement building. Our movement has a lot of work to do if we are to overcome current and future global destitution, but I believe in the soulful healing that
can happen along the way.
My father was an intimidating figure in my house. His heavy presence did a lot of harm to our relationship and my family, and left me without meaningful mentorship for most of my life.
My father did not have the support he needed when growing up, either, something that contributed to his own deep emotional trenches that were to be filled with substance abuse in his younger years. His leaning on capitalistic metrics of success in search of happiness and validation depreciated the significance of the relationships he held, and left me without support.
The same institutions that have corrupted our democracies and condemned the lives of millions also left me without a supportive parent. For this reason, I need climate justice.
I have found so much love and vigor in our community, it has given me space to reflect and work through my experiences to become a more whole person. This work has revitalized me. I want to support others as they bridge the voids in their lives because my vision for our
world cannot be lived or created by damaged people. Ours is not only a movement of throwing away the bad and discarding the ugly, but of deep emotional healing and reconnection. This is a movement for change that reaches deeper than the individual campaigns it consists of, and into the lives of the people that comprise it.
Though I have only one year left before graduating, I have no intention to stop organizing. Boulder has a history of student activism, but one that is neatly buried by the existing administration and allowed to be forgotten. This is a student movement to build power,
and I am determined to shift the way my peers within the CU system relate to our administration. I work to train youth organizers and activists, build community and deepen consciousness. Just as world leaders will not take steps necessary to steer us from destitution,
my administration refuses to stand for justice and end its support of the most damaging industry in our history.
I pledge to remain committed to the movement for fossil fuel divestment and continue to organize for climate justice, because my dedication to this work cannot be bookended by graduation. I am dedicated to building the power of our movement over the long-term because injustice is not an investment. I will not graduate out of this movement. I take to heart this commitment, and hope that you will also pledge to fight for the future of current students and of generations to come. Will you join me?
With love and hope,
P.D. Gantert
University of Colorado, Boulder
Class of 2016
#CantStopWontStop #BankOnUs!
jason schwartz, san francisco state university '15
Dear Fellow Fossil Fuel Divestment Organizers,
My name is Jason Schwartz and I am a student at San Francisco State University. I am a fifth-year senior and will be graduating soon. I am also an organizer with Fossil Free SFSU and the Divestment Student Network, both part of the movement for climate justice. The fossil fuel industry and college administrators are waiting for student organizing to subside as we graduate, but I am writing to pledge my commitment to this movement for the long haul.
In the novel Perks of Being a Wallflower, the high school protagonist imagines himself in college. Speaking to his friends he jokes,
God, college is such a trial. My professor is making me read twenty-seven books this weekend, and my girlfriend needs me to paint signs for her protest rally Tuesday. Let those administrators know we mean business. Dad is busy with his golf swing, and Mom has her hands full with tennis. We must do this again. I would stay, but I have to pick my sister up from her emotional workshop. She's making real progress. Good to see ya.
The sandwiching of activism between homework and Dad’s golf swing is what the fossil fuel industry and college administrators want it to be, but that’s not what it is for me.
When I was six years old, my parents went through a brutal divorce and my world fell apart. In a vivid emotional memory, I looked to my mother to ask her what was going on. Her back to me, she turned her head and on her face I saw that she knew, but wouldn’t tell me. I was abandoned. Since then I have always felt isolated and alone, like I didn’t fit in anywhere. The world was a dark place and I had nobody to explain it to me.
Just two years ago, as a junior, my world was still very dark. I was addicted to drugs. A regular Friday night for me looked like getting blackout drunk and yelling at someone at a party about how everyone was doomed and there was nothing that we could do.
However, even though the place that I was in was very dark, a small part of me was always searching for truth. This part of me led me to take courses like Anthropology of Racism and American Indians and U.S. Laws for my general education requirements even though I was an audio production major and a graphic design major before that. Even though I was finishing the second semester of my junior year and had already spent a year taking classes to transfer into an impacted major, I knew that I had to change my life’s course yet again. I transferred to Environmental Studies and joined Fossil Free SFSU immediately after seeing a presentation at our majors’ meeting.
Organizing quickly consumed my life. I found myself working twenty or more hours a week for no pay, solely because I cared deeply about the work I was doing and was driven by an intense passion for truth and justice. Organizing became a way for me to cut through the dark fog that had consumed me since I was a child. It was a way for me to fight back and say, No! This is not okay! This is not the world that I want to live in!
Because of my experiences, I pledge to remain committed to the movement for fossil fuel divestment and continue to organize for climate justice far beyond college graduation. I am dedicated to building the power of our movement over the long-term because injustice is not an investment. I will not graduate out of this movement.
In addition to continuing to organize, I also pledge to withhold donations from San Francisco State University until it commits to divest from direct investments and commingled fund holdings in the top 200 fossil fuel companies with the largest reserves.
I take this commitment seriously, and I hope that you will also pledge to fight for the future of current students and of generations to come. Will you join me?
With love,
Jason Schwartz
San Francisco State University ‘15
Campus Organizer, Fossil Free SFSU
CA Network Organizer, Divestment Student Network
#CantStopWontStop #BankOnUs
My name is Jason Schwartz and I am a student at San Francisco State University. I am a fifth-year senior and will be graduating soon. I am also an organizer with Fossil Free SFSU and the Divestment Student Network, both part of the movement for climate justice. The fossil fuel industry and college administrators are waiting for student organizing to subside as we graduate, but I am writing to pledge my commitment to this movement for the long haul.
In the novel Perks of Being a Wallflower, the high school protagonist imagines himself in college. Speaking to his friends he jokes,
God, college is such a trial. My professor is making me read twenty-seven books this weekend, and my girlfriend needs me to paint signs for her protest rally Tuesday. Let those administrators know we mean business. Dad is busy with his golf swing, and Mom has her hands full with tennis. We must do this again. I would stay, but I have to pick my sister up from her emotional workshop. She's making real progress. Good to see ya.
The sandwiching of activism between homework and Dad’s golf swing is what the fossil fuel industry and college administrators want it to be, but that’s not what it is for me.
When I was six years old, my parents went through a brutal divorce and my world fell apart. In a vivid emotional memory, I looked to my mother to ask her what was going on. Her back to me, she turned her head and on her face I saw that she knew, but wouldn’t tell me. I was abandoned. Since then I have always felt isolated and alone, like I didn’t fit in anywhere. The world was a dark place and I had nobody to explain it to me.
Just two years ago, as a junior, my world was still very dark. I was addicted to drugs. A regular Friday night for me looked like getting blackout drunk and yelling at someone at a party about how everyone was doomed and there was nothing that we could do.
However, even though the place that I was in was very dark, a small part of me was always searching for truth. This part of me led me to take courses like Anthropology of Racism and American Indians and U.S. Laws for my general education requirements even though I was an audio production major and a graphic design major before that. Even though I was finishing the second semester of my junior year and had already spent a year taking classes to transfer into an impacted major, I knew that I had to change my life’s course yet again. I transferred to Environmental Studies and joined Fossil Free SFSU immediately after seeing a presentation at our majors’ meeting.
Organizing quickly consumed my life. I found myself working twenty or more hours a week for no pay, solely because I cared deeply about the work I was doing and was driven by an intense passion for truth and justice. Organizing became a way for me to cut through the dark fog that had consumed me since I was a child. It was a way for me to fight back and say, No! This is not okay! This is not the world that I want to live in!
Because of my experiences, I pledge to remain committed to the movement for fossil fuel divestment and continue to organize for climate justice far beyond college graduation. I am dedicated to building the power of our movement over the long-term because injustice is not an investment. I will not graduate out of this movement.
In addition to continuing to organize, I also pledge to withhold donations from San Francisco State University until it commits to divest from direct investments and commingled fund holdings in the top 200 fossil fuel companies with the largest reserves.
I take this commitment seriously, and I hope that you will also pledge to fight for the future of current students and of generations to come. Will you join me?
With love,
Jason Schwartz
San Francisco State University ‘15
Campus Organizer, Fossil Free SFSU
CA Network Organizer, Divestment Student Network
#CantStopWontStop #BankOnUs
michaela steiner, northern arizona university '16
Dear Fellow Climate Justice Activists,
My name is Michaela Steiner and I am a student at Northern Arizona University, class of 2016.
I am a student organizer with Fossil Free NAU, a part of the movement for fossil fuel divestment and climate justice. Our University is waiting for the student campaign to subside as our members graduate, but I am writing to tell you that I am in this movement for the long-haul. Injustice is not an investment. I organize for divestment because my body, the planet, and my future are not disposable.
Growing up, I never had high self-esteem. I always felt like I had to outperform my peers, that what I did was never good enough. I would go to extreme lengths to please people and sacrifice my own well-being and happiness. I was bullied as a child and if any peers were nice to me, I’d cling onto their kindness. I started to be afraid of letting people down, losing their trust, and eventually losing their friendship altogether. Failure and diving into the unknown became something to avoid at all costs. I felt disposable; I couldn't really be liked unless I allowed other people to use and walk all over me. I was an easy target for this because I never stood up myself; I never raised my voice and I never felt heard by my peers.
My self worth being based on other’s approval and feeling like I needed to be perfect for others to like me spiraled into a pattern of self-destruction when I a young teen. I developed an eating disorder that relied upon me seeing myself as disposable for the sake of perfection. Having the eating disorder was easier than being alone; It was there telling me what to do, and it gave me a sense of superficial self- confidence that I had a will like none other. I felt lost and my body was beginning to break down. I desperately wanted to recover yet I was addicted to starvation and the cycle of anorexia. I was afraid every time I went to sleep that I would never wake up. Yet the eating disorder was my entire existence and identity, and without it, I knew no other path to take. I felt lost in that I didn't know who I was apart from the eating disorder.
I have a stake in fighting the fossil fuel industry because I cannot bear to watch our society's addiction to fossil fuels kill the body of our earth. My organizing for the long haul is a crucial piece of my recovery process. My body, planet, and future are not disposable. I have seen first hand how harmful addiction is and I cannot watch our society kill our planet simply because we can not stop our addiction to fossil fuels and quit cold turkey. My addiction with anorexia hurt myself, my friends, and my family. While I was engaged in this addiction, I denied I even had one in the first place. Will we continue to deny our addiction in an attempt to not have to face the truth and consequences of our actions? When will our society face our addiction and take the side of healing and recovery?
I pledge to remain committed to the movement for fossil fuel divestment and continue to organize for climate justice far beyond college graduation. I am dedicated to building the power of our movement over the long-term. I will not graduate out of this movement.
In addition to continued organizing, I also pledge to withhold donations from Northern Arizona University until they commit to divest from the top 200 fossil fuel companies with the largest reserves.
I take this commitment very seriously, and I hope that you will also commit to protecting the future of generations to come. Will you join me?
With Love,
Michaela Steiner
Northern Arizona University, 2016
Regional Organizer with the Divestment Student Network
#CantStopWontStop #BankOnUs
My name is Michaela Steiner and I am a student at Northern Arizona University, class of 2016.
I am a student organizer with Fossil Free NAU, a part of the movement for fossil fuel divestment and climate justice. Our University is waiting for the student campaign to subside as our members graduate, but I am writing to tell you that I am in this movement for the long-haul. Injustice is not an investment. I organize for divestment because my body, the planet, and my future are not disposable.
Growing up, I never had high self-esteem. I always felt like I had to outperform my peers, that what I did was never good enough. I would go to extreme lengths to please people and sacrifice my own well-being and happiness. I was bullied as a child and if any peers were nice to me, I’d cling onto their kindness. I started to be afraid of letting people down, losing their trust, and eventually losing their friendship altogether. Failure and diving into the unknown became something to avoid at all costs. I felt disposable; I couldn't really be liked unless I allowed other people to use and walk all over me. I was an easy target for this because I never stood up myself; I never raised my voice and I never felt heard by my peers.
My self worth being based on other’s approval and feeling like I needed to be perfect for others to like me spiraled into a pattern of self-destruction when I a young teen. I developed an eating disorder that relied upon me seeing myself as disposable for the sake of perfection. Having the eating disorder was easier than being alone; It was there telling me what to do, and it gave me a sense of superficial self- confidence that I had a will like none other. I felt lost and my body was beginning to break down. I desperately wanted to recover yet I was addicted to starvation and the cycle of anorexia. I was afraid every time I went to sleep that I would never wake up. Yet the eating disorder was my entire existence and identity, and without it, I knew no other path to take. I felt lost in that I didn't know who I was apart from the eating disorder.
I have a stake in fighting the fossil fuel industry because I cannot bear to watch our society's addiction to fossil fuels kill the body of our earth. My organizing for the long haul is a crucial piece of my recovery process. My body, planet, and future are not disposable. I have seen first hand how harmful addiction is and I cannot watch our society kill our planet simply because we can not stop our addiction to fossil fuels and quit cold turkey. My addiction with anorexia hurt myself, my friends, and my family. While I was engaged in this addiction, I denied I even had one in the first place. Will we continue to deny our addiction in an attempt to not have to face the truth and consequences of our actions? When will our society face our addiction and take the side of healing and recovery?
I pledge to remain committed to the movement for fossil fuel divestment and continue to organize for climate justice far beyond college graduation. I am dedicated to building the power of our movement over the long-term. I will not graduate out of this movement.
In addition to continued organizing, I also pledge to withhold donations from Northern Arizona University until they commit to divest from the top 200 fossil fuel companies with the largest reserves.
I take this commitment very seriously, and I hope that you will also commit to protecting the future of generations to come. Will you join me?
With Love,
Michaela Steiner
Northern Arizona University, 2016
Regional Organizer with the Divestment Student Network
#CantStopWontStop #BankOnUs
sarah ponticello, northern arizona university '15
With so much emphasis being put on the “Green” movement, the mentality around what being Green is has been lost. It seems no longer to be a personal moral decision to live sustainably, but a corporate logo to instill confidence in a brand. Greenwashing is a serious issue as more and more people are seeking out the morally responsible product. There are no larger corporations that are abusing this than the oil industry. Companies that are determined to pollute our atmosphere and destroy our environment are now targeting the climate movement.
It is our time to stop the greenwashing and stop the destruction of our climate. I have pledged to withhold donations from my university until they divest and to organize after graduation and beyond to put an end to the misinformation and misuse of fossil fuels. They have no place in a progressive community and no place above ground. Recent climate change began with climate injustice. I am committing to revoking the power of the fossil fuel industry and shifting it to the people’s hands. I pledge to divesting from fossil fuels.
Sarah Johnson
Northern Arizona University, Class of 2015
#CantStopWontStop #BankonUs
emily kirkland, brown '13
Dear fellow organizers for climate justice,
My name is Emily Kirkland, and I am an alumna of Brown University, Class of 2013. As a student, I organized with Fossil Free Brown, and I continue to support the campaign as much as I can. The fossil fuel industry and college administrators are waiting for student organizing to subside as we graduate, but I am writing to pledge my commitment to this movement for the long haul.
What initially drew me to the fossil fuel divestment movement was the promise of winning. I’d never been involved in organizing or activism before, and I found each milestone thrilling: our first rally, our first media hit, our first meeting with trustees. I spent my senior year dreaming of victory, making phone calls and collecting petition signatures like a madwoman.
Two days before I graduated, our president and board of trustees told us that they would not be voting on divestment that year. (This “maybe later” was followed by a “no” a few months later). I spent much of graduation weekend in tears. Like most of my friends, I’d given everything I had to the campaign, and we hadn’t won. Did our work even matter? Why had we bothered?
A year and a half later, I now approach my work in an entirely different way. Since graduating, I’ve continued organizing for climate justice in a variety of roles, first as a volunteer at the short-lived but wonderful Climate Justice Hub in Somerville, MA, then as a staff member with Environment California in Los Angeles, and now as Communications Coordinator for Better Future Project in Cambridge, MA. For me, organizing for climate justice isn’t about winning anymore. It’s about building the skills and the relationships that I’ll need to keep fighting for justice for the rest of my life. The work I do now is important – but so is the work I hope to do as a grey-haired grandmother in fifty years.
Climate change isn’t a thing we can stop. Like it or not, we’ll face it for the rest of our lives, and it will manifest itself in a million different ways: floods, fires, vicious fights over immigration and refugee policies, arguments about geoengineering, heatwaves, strange new birds in our backyards. It will be a long haul, and I want to be still fighting and yelling at the top of my lungs in the weird and terrible world of 2050.
For me, part of what that means is that there is no “right” way to organize after graduation. The only thing that matters is that I stay engaged, in some way, and that I find the rituals and rhythms and communities that will allow me to do this work for a lifetime. I imagine that sometimes I’ll be paid for my organizing work, and sometimes I won’t. Sometimes I’ll fight under the banner of “climate justice”, and sometimes I won’t. But it will all be part of the same movement, and the same struggle for a more just and beautiful world.
I pledge to remain committed to the movement for fossil fuel divestment and continue to organize for climate justice far beyond college graduation. I am dedicated to building the power of our movement over the long-term because injustice is not an investment. I will not graduate out of this movement.
In addition to continuing to organize, I also pledge to withhold donations from Brown University until it commits to divestment from the top 200 fossil fuel companies with the largest reserves.
I take this commitment seriously, and I hope that you will also pledge to fight for the future of current students and of generations to come. Will you join me?
With love,
Emily Kirkland
Brown University, Class of 2013
#CantStopWontStop #BankOnUs
My name is Emily Kirkland, and I am an alumna of Brown University, Class of 2013. As a student, I organized with Fossil Free Brown, and I continue to support the campaign as much as I can. The fossil fuel industry and college administrators are waiting for student organizing to subside as we graduate, but I am writing to pledge my commitment to this movement for the long haul.
What initially drew me to the fossil fuel divestment movement was the promise of winning. I’d never been involved in organizing or activism before, and I found each milestone thrilling: our first rally, our first media hit, our first meeting with trustees. I spent my senior year dreaming of victory, making phone calls and collecting petition signatures like a madwoman.
Two days before I graduated, our president and board of trustees told us that they would not be voting on divestment that year. (This “maybe later” was followed by a “no” a few months later). I spent much of graduation weekend in tears. Like most of my friends, I’d given everything I had to the campaign, and we hadn’t won. Did our work even matter? Why had we bothered?
A year and a half later, I now approach my work in an entirely different way. Since graduating, I’ve continued organizing for climate justice in a variety of roles, first as a volunteer at the short-lived but wonderful Climate Justice Hub in Somerville, MA, then as a staff member with Environment California in Los Angeles, and now as Communications Coordinator for Better Future Project in Cambridge, MA. For me, organizing for climate justice isn’t about winning anymore. It’s about building the skills and the relationships that I’ll need to keep fighting for justice for the rest of my life. The work I do now is important – but so is the work I hope to do as a grey-haired grandmother in fifty years.
Climate change isn’t a thing we can stop. Like it or not, we’ll face it for the rest of our lives, and it will manifest itself in a million different ways: floods, fires, vicious fights over immigration and refugee policies, arguments about geoengineering, heatwaves, strange new birds in our backyards. It will be a long haul, and I want to be still fighting and yelling at the top of my lungs in the weird and terrible world of 2050.
For me, part of what that means is that there is no “right” way to organize after graduation. The only thing that matters is that I stay engaged, in some way, and that I find the rituals and rhythms and communities that will allow me to do this work for a lifetime. I imagine that sometimes I’ll be paid for my organizing work, and sometimes I won’t. Sometimes I’ll fight under the banner of “climate justice”, and sometimes I won’t. But it will all be part of the same movement, and the same struggle for a more just and beautiful world.
I pledge to remain committed to the movement for fossil fuel divestment and continue to organize for climate justice far beyond college graduation. I am dedicated to building the power of our movement over the long-term because injustice is not an investment. I will not graduate out of this movement.
In addition to continuing to organize, I also pledge to withhold donations from Brown University until it commits to divestment from the top 200 fossil fuel companies with the largest reserves.
I take this commitment seriously, and I hope that you will also pledge to fight for the future of current students and of generations to come. Will you join me?
With love,
Emily Kirkland
Brown University, Class of 2013
#CantStopWontStop #BankOnUs