Ringing in the New Year by fi ghting climate change
BY KYLE VUILLE
Last year was a big year
for the climate change discussion
around world, but a
new generation are expecting
their science teachers
and their teachings to create
a greener future.
No better way to enter
2020 and honor those science
teachers than have them hit
the crystal button that would
drop the Times Square New
Years ball.
Bronx Latin School science
teacher Aida Rosenbaum,
recent recipient of the
11th annual Sloan Award for
Excellence in Teaching Science
and Mathematics, was
one of two NYC teachers to
win the award and have the
chance to share hitting the
prestigious button with a select
few students.
“It was absolutely surreal,
still feels like it didn’t
happen,” Rosenbaum said.
“I received the Sloan award
and a couple days later I
got the call from the Times
Square Alliance asking me
to push the button.”
Rosenbaum along with
two of her students, 17-yearold
juniors, Ven Ulloa and
Daniel Soto, were invited for
the work and advocacy done
in the fi ght against climate
change. She added it was extremely
tough to pick only
two students out of her current
65 who have all contributed
in the cause.
Both students said the
ball drop was a once in a lifetime
experience that they
would never forget.
“It was amazing, I’ve
never experienced anything
like that, it was humbling,”
Ulloa said.
Rosenbaum and her students
participated in the
Walk for Water as well as attended
the recent worldwide
Climate March.
What really Rosenbaum
and her students care about
is the community they and
their families live in.
Rosenbaum spoke of the
extensive work of students
in the school garden as well
as the community garden.
“We are improving air
quality and the quality of
life in Morrisania,” Rosenbaum
said.
Rosenbaum’s motivation
and commitment to her students
and environmental
science started with her own
schooling in Washington
Heights some 30 years ago.
She spoke up having one
particular math teacher
who helped in her studies in
order for young Rosenbaum
to go to a specialized math
and science school.
Rosenbaum spent her
collegiate years (undergraduate
and graduate) studying
All the honorees stand behind the button for the New Year’s Eve 2020 ball drop in Times Square last week. The honorees were commended
for their advocacy in the fi ght against climate change. Photo courtesy of Aida Rosenbaum
environmental science only
to realize a big chuck of the
population did not understand
the effects of climate
change.
“I found out a lot of people
in power didn’t have the
proper knowledge on climate
issues,” Rosenbaum
said.
After changing her career
path over to education,
she knew she would return
to the people who needed
her most, the children of
NYC.
“I wanted to return with
the expertise and knowledge
I had, like the opposite
of brain drain, and bring
it back to the community,”
Rosenbaum said. “It’s my
passion, what I was meant
to do.”
Ulloa and Soto both
underlined Rosenbaum’s
teachings of activism and
its importance to the fi ght
against climate change.
“She taught me activism,
interconnectedness,
and being sociable to further
pursue our goals and
how to be a sustainable person,”
Soto said.
Looking to the future and
continuing the fi ght against
climate change, Rosenbaum
intends to have her students
get even more involved in
the community they live in.
First and foremost, the
teacher plans on incorporating
more citizen action
among her students.
“I want them to actually
implement something instead
of studying something
just for the sake of studying
it,” Rosenbaum said.
Another future goal of
Rosenbaum’s is having her
students talk to their parents,
relatives, and neighbors
who live in the neighborhood
about the 2020 census.
She said, even though
people may be intimidated of
answering this year’s questions,
she fi nds it critical for
people who live in the community
to be apart of the
census to plan accordingly
for climate resiliency.
Rosenbaum plans to take
her students to a climate
change summit in the spring
to meet with other students
who share the same passion
and move forward fi ghting
climate change.
3 BRONX WEEKLY January 12, 2020 www.BXTimes.com
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(Left to Right): Ven Ulloa, Aida Rosenbaum and Daniel Soto. Rosenbaum
and her two students were honored at the Times Square
2020 ball drop for their work against climate change.
Photo courtesy of Aida Rosenbaum
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