The Environmental Justice Fellowship (EJF) program welcomes Emily Alta, Tyrese Billups, Eileen Corrales and Nicole Villachica as the newest class of fellows for 2023. The fellows over the course of the next few months will be surveying and canvassing the city, attending various seminars and events, creating new connections with environmental advocates and community members alike and continuing environmental education within the city.

“I can’t say enough about this new class of EJ fellows. This year’s fellows are pretty savvy,” said Kathy Lawrence, founding board chair of the Greater Newburgh Parks Conservancy and advisor for the fellows. “They’ve come in really knowing a whole lot about the environment, about science, about biology, about politics. And so, what’s exciting for me is to see them in the very first week or two of the program, having ideas, ‘I want to research this, I want to look at the connections between these two things.’” The 2023 fellows look forward to the work ahead and to creating more community connections and hear what the community has to say about environmental restoration and advocacy.

Emily Alta - Born and raised in the City of Newburgh, first-time fellow Alta is currently a marketing student at Mount Saint Mary College and serves as the social media coordinator this year for the fellowship.

Before ever considering joining, she first became aware of the program through a college friend who had been in the program. The enthusiasm expressed by her friend and working previously with Lawrence inspired Alta to ultimately apply and join the group. “With Kathy, she was a bundle of joy literally from the second I met her. She literally speaks for the trees and she’s just able to spread that joy and that love towards, towards everyone,” said Alta.

Along with social media, Alta manages community outreach through promotional materials and community conversations. Even while the work at the local level is being conducted, Alta did share her criticism of those who could be doing more for the environment within positions of power. “People in power, don’t really care about the environment. They prefer profit,” she said. “It’s just really eye opening to see that those people are in power, and we need people that genuinely care and actually speak for environmental justice to be in those positions, so that we don’t have those problems anymore. It’s just a never ending cycle that at one point hopefully you can stop.”

As one who is working within social media, she said that the EJF program and platform can help create more connections within the community. “My goal is to have as many connections as possible, because I want to be able to have an impact on the entire community,” she said. “It’s more of like, having a good reputation with the community and knowing that we left our mark, literally in the ground. I feel like this program has helped me become a more connected person with nature,” said Alta.

Tyrese Billups - A first-time fellow and fellow city native, Billups first learned about the program after seeing a flyer posted at the Newburgh Free Library. For Billups, he said that he had been interested in environmental justice for some time and so he took the opportunity to apply and was successfully accepted. Within the fellowship, Billups’ main role is overseeing data management while also working with the public relation efforts and education focused materials.

“With me with data collection it’s that pretty much I’m seeing how we can redo the landscaping,” he said. “I’m also doing some canvassing to see whether or not it would be good conditions to plant some of the other trees around the City of Newburgh.” The research that Billups has undertaken is part of the greater EJF initiative in the creation of digital tree logs and databases for the city.

For Billups, he shared in his EJF biography that helping the natural environment helps solve social, economic and political problems while also preserving nature’s beauty and its numerous values.

During the course of the program so far, Billups said he has been fascinated in learning about the relationship of the tree with humanity through providing oxygen and also providing shade to cool down urban areas. However, there are setbacks such as the empty tree pits in Newburgh that the fellowship have been actively looking to fill each year.

In the future, Billups hopes to pursue a career as an environmentalist and welcomes those who may be interested in becoming a fellow or interested in environmental justice to support the group. “I would just say that it’s been a great experience so far and I like it too,” said Billups. “Be more supportive and help grow the community.”

Eileen Corrales - Corrales currently attends SUNY New Paltz pursuing a degree in Biochemistry. Corrales first became aware of the fellowship program, which at the time was seeking new fellows, through an Instagram posting. After looking more into the program, she applied and was accepted. Within the fellowship, Corrales focuses on public relations and education for the group.

Corrales, who is of Mexican/Colombian descent, said that prior to her family coming to the City of Newburgh, she had once lived out on a farm where she had a strong connection with the natural environment. “I would help out my parents working on the farm, and kind of helping them in any shape or form that I could,” said Corrales. From the farm, the family moved and the ability to once go to parks and enjoy the outside all changed.

Now as a newly joined fellow, Corrales feels that her opportunity is like a homecoming to her. “When I heard about this fellowship, it really spoke to me because I really wanted to connect back with my roots of how I grew up,” said Corrales. “It brings me closer to kind of how my mom grew up back in Mexico, because every time we would go there, she grew up on farmlands and all of that and it makes me feel like it’s still a part of my culture.”

As a member of this program, she believes that boundaries, whether they be racial, economic or educational, can be broken through the common goal of preserving the environment. “We all have this goal of preserving the earth and giving our next generation, our future something to hold on to, something to remember,” she said. “This program, it allowed me to just kind of be able to connect with people on something that we are trying to make better for our future.”

Nicole Villachica - A lifelong city resident, Villachica is currently pursuing a degree in Biology. At school is where she first learned about the EJF program from the Natural Science program and her teacher. During the time of COVID, when the world came to pause, Villachica said she became interested in gardening to pass the time. This interest, followed by a push to join the fellowship by another MSMC student who had been in the fellowship, helped her ultimately join. As a former volunteer at the Newburgh Armory Unity Center and other various places growing up in the city, she wanted to get back out and serve the community. Within the fellowship today, she also helps with graphic design and social media maintenance.

Working together with Lawrence during this period of her life has been a worthwhile experience. Even though she has seen herself pursuing medical school, she has now begun to express interest in other environmental-related fields thanks to Lawrence and the fellowship. “I never met a woman who was so passionate about environmental justice,” said Villachica.

As a MSMC student, Villachica expressed her enthusiasm in possibly bringing this program to the college to raise awareness and potentially bring in more fellows along the way. “We all have the opportunity to make a change in this environment that we’re living in,” said Villachica.

The EJF program is a group that is focused on the promotion of advocacy, community education and overall care, respect and understanding of street trees and green spaces in the City of Newburgh and beyond. The program was created through the partnership of advocacy groups such as Outdoor Promise [OP], the Conservation Advisory Council [CAC] and the Greater Newburgh Parks Conservancy [GNPC]. Further continued support has also been provided by the Newburgh City Council, the city manager’s office and the city staff who contributed additional resources for the group.

Each of the fellows also serves as a resource to the community in the various spaces and conversations surrounding the topic of environmental justice whether it be through data collection, social media management or community education. These new fellows join a growing network of young adults who have helped with education resources in the community, conducted research into the natural environment or are pursuing other ventures while focusing on environmental advocacy. Previous fellows include Elio Luna, Gema Vidals Herrera, Kwaija McFarlane, Monserrat Medina, and Thomas Coleman, Marichen Montiel Hertling, Heidy Bonilla, Kathryn McKenzie, and Ameesah Cotten.

More information can be found at newburghparksconservancy.org where community members and supporters can learn more about the fellowship and GNPC.