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Community Voices in Environmental Justice

Buffalo High Road Fellow Laura Wang reflects on her fellowship experience alongside high road principles of sustainability and environmental justice.
Sunset by the Buffalo Launch Club
Community Voices in Environmental Justice

democracy****

Buffalo High Road Fellow Timo Isreb (ILR '26) uses poetry to reflect on the idea and practice of democracy.
Stock Image of Fine Print
democracy****

First Steps and Stumbles on the High Road

Lila Tauzin-Fox reflects on the first few days of the Buffalo High Road Fellowship.
Photo of building in buffalo halfway crumbled
First Steps and Stumbles on the High Road

Urban Environmental Justice: Green Spaces

Delilah Hernandez (High Road Fellow 2022) integrates her lived experience and data to discuss environmental racism and tree canopies in Chicago, Illinois
Delilah Hernandez
Urban Environmental Justice: Green Spaces

A High Road Theodicy

Noah Berg (High Road Fellow 2022) reflects on a trip to the Tree of Life Synagogue.
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A High Road Theodicy

Five Lessons Learned During The High Road

Vindhya Kathuria (High Road Fellow 2022) shares five lessons she learned as a High Road Fellow
Niagara Falls
Five Lessons Learned During The High Road

The pools are closed

José Roque Pérez-Zetune (High Road Fellow 2022) reflects on summer, heat, joy, fear, and the need for relief.
José Roque Pérez-Zetune
The pools are closed

Equity in Action

Sakiel Ruff (High Road Fellow 2022) reflects on the attainability of equity after living on the East Side of Buffalo
Sakiel Ruff Portrait
Equity in Action

To the White Liberals of Buffalo: That’s not Democracy

Sydney Browne (High Road Fellow 2022) reflects on the effectiveness of the OCAB disruptions at the July 12th Buffalo Common Council Meeting.
Buffalo Common Council Meeting - Redistricting
To the White Liberals of Buffalo: That’s not Democracy

Poem: To Nydia

Finley Williams (High Road Fellow 2022) remembers the fourth of July in South Side Chicago through prose poetry and reflection.
Fireworks
Poem: To Nydia

Street Design: West vs. East

Anastasia Assenso (High Road Fellow 2022) juxtaposes street design on the east side of Buffalo vs the west side of Buffalo to highlight disparities.
Street view east side buffalo
Street Design: West vs. East

Listen to East Buffalo

Vindhya Kathuria (High Road Fellow 2022) authors an original poem on the need to truly listen to the East Buffalo community and respond to their needs.
Buffalo Strong
Listen to East Buffalo

"RESIST, REJECT, REBEL": Mannequins as Social Protest

Jacob Blizard (High Road Fellow 2022), presents different styles of mannequin art to inspire others to use other mediums to flout mainstream representations of identity and traverse the status quo.
3 mannequins in a storefront window
"RESIST, REJECT, REBEL": Mannequins as Social Protest

Liberation is Growing: The Urban Farmer’s Perspective

Jacob Blizard (High Road Fellow 2022) reflects on antiracism, food justice, and collective liberation
Sunflower extending across a bathroom wall with the word “Defy”
Liberation is Growing: The Urban Farmer’s Perspective

Politicians and Gods: What’s the Difference?

Sydney Browne (High Road Fellow 2022) reflects on the differences between politicians and greek gods and what responsibilities our politicians have.
a picture of the reproductive rights protests outside of Justice Kavanaugh’s house
Politicians and Gods: What’s the Difference?

Working in Buffalo: An Ode to the Possible

Finley Williams (High Road Fellow 2022) reflects on both acknowledging systemic inequities that led to segregation, divestment, blight, transportation differentials, and health imbalances, but also refusing to accept these scourges as immutable.
Sam Magavern leading a Buffalo bus tour for the High Road 2022 cohort
Working in Buffalo: An Ode to the Possible

Achieving Progress Through Equitable Education

Salima Ali (High Road Fellow 2021) reflects on educational inequality.
Cornell Proud Parents
Achieving Progress Through Equitable Education

Poetic Resistance in Palestine

Sabiha Obaid (High Road 2021) reflects on the Justice for Palestine movement.
To Exist Is To Resist
Poetic Resistance in Palestine

Juneteenth--A Step in the Direction for Social Change

Samantha Ivey (High Road Fellow 2021) reflects on Juneteenth's designation as a Federal holiday.
free-ish
Juneteenth--A Step in the Direction for Social Change

The Necessity of Radical Change

Sabiha Obaid (High Road Fellow 2021) reflects on systemic racism in the United States.
Black Lives Matter protest
The Necessity of Radical Change

Inequities among Healthcare Workers and Unions

Kevin Diaz (High Road Fellow 2021) reflects on a CWA rally he attended in Buffalo, NY.
CWA rally in Buffalo
Inequities among Healthcare Workers and Unions

Being Tied to Buffalo’s Single Garment of Destiny

Jonathan Zheng (High Road Fellow 2021) reflects on MLK's concept of an "inescapable network of mutuality."
Overlapping hands of different colors
Being Tied to Buffalo’s Single Garment of Destiny

Improve the Character of Our Society

Paul Joseph Havern (High Road Fellow 2021) reflects on the movement to reform the US incarceration system.
Two Black hands holding prison bars
Improve the Character of Our Society

Underground Politics

Uwaila Odiase (High Road Fellow 2021) reflects on why politics matter through the lens of the NYC subway.
Photo of High Road Fellow Uwaila Odiase
Underground Politics

For a Strong Democracy, Look Local

Katherine Ann Esterl reflects on the state of politics in the United States.
Buffalo City Hall
For a Strong Democracy, Look Local

The Culture Changer Who Taught Good Trouble

Katherine Ann Esterl (High Road Fellow 2021) reflects on the legacy of John Lewis.
Mural of John Lewis on a street corner
The Culture Changer Who Taught Good Trouble

Juneteenth Through the Lens of a Vietnamese Woman

Anh Dao Truc Lam (High Road Fellow 2021) reflects on Juneteenth from the positionality of a Vietnamese woman.
A group marches behind a sign that reads "Juneteenth Festival Buffalo, NY with an image of the African continent. Marchers hold up Black Liberation Flags and large cutout drawings of African masks.
Juneteenth Through the Lens of a Vietnamese Woman

Thinking Small: Why I’m Zooming in to Celebrate Local Government This Summer

Callie McQuilkin (High Road Fellow 2021) reflects on the importance of local leaders.
High Road Fellow on right with arm around icon statue of Shark Girl in Buffalo on left
Thinking Small: Why I’m Zooming in to Celebrate Local Government This Summer

High Road 2021- Still Shaping Stories Miles Away

Samantha Ivey (High Road Fellow 2021) reflects on the quote by Karima Amin that “Stories are everywhere, and I look for them everywhere".
Two people who are far away and both looking at their phones with a dotted arrow connecting them
High Road 2021- Still Shaping Stories Miles Away

Getting to Know Buffalo from New York City

Julia Haberfield (High Road Fellow 2021) reflects on doing work in a city she has not yet been able to visit.
View of individuals living different lives through apartment building windows.
Getting to Know Buffalo from New York City

Community and Connectivity

Lizzie Taber (High Road Fellow 2021) describes her her work at the Citizens for Regional Transit in Buffalo, New York and inspiration to work on transit and connectivity to reduce isolation.
Above ground metro in Buffalo, New York
Community and Connectivity

High Road Builders for a Summer to Remember

The High Road Builder awardees for this historic summer are two extraordinary women, Shannon Gleeson and Lorna Hill, whose compassion and influence cross borders and span divides.

Shannon Gleeson and Lorna Hill
High Road Builders for a Summer to Remember

High Road Goes Virtual, Real Results

From across the nation, ILRies work to bolster Buffalo’s future.
abstract texture that shows buffalo
High Road Goes Virtual, Real Results

The Prison Letters of CeCe McDonald

Panel discusses letters of CeCe McDonald, a Black Trans woman sentenced to 41 months in prison for defending her friends and herself from racist, transphobic assaulters.
CeCe McDonald
The Prison Letters of CeCe McDonald

High Road 2020: Place-Based Work from Any Place

Instead of bringing the students to Buffalo, the Cornell ILR Buffalo Co-Lab will be modifying summer projects, panels, tours, activities so that it can bring Buffalo to its Fellows.

Student seated at a desk conducting a phone interview
High Road 2020: Place-Based Work from Any Place

Cornell Fellows Continue Tradition of Public Service to Greater Buffalo

In June and July, 21 Cornell undergraduates will come to Western New York to contribute to community and economic development with an array of community-based organizations and local elected officials.

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Cornell Fellows Continue Tradition of Public Service to Greater Buffalo

Returning to the High Road

ILR Buffalo Co-Lab launches winter internship program

Missing alt
Returning to the High Road

ILR helps drive progressive change in Buffalo

Cornell Chronicle

ILR’s work in Buffalo helps “strengthen institutions so that they can more effectively change the world and create an economy that works for everyone,” according to Lou Jean Fleron.

West Side resident Bob Jahnke, a longtime member of the PUSH Community Development Committee, walks through one of the community gardens in his neighborhood.
ILR helps drive progressive change in Buffalo

People Want Change

When I spoke to my supervisor at Open Buffalo for the first time, I asked: “How do you persuade people to care about your initiatives?” All the stories I saw on the news and my interactions with local government at home, told me that we are in a period of

Shara at the Nash House
People Want Change

Growing on the High Road

“History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.”

2017 High Road Fellows Maame Britwum and Kaya Coleman at the Innovation Center on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus
Growing on the High Road

Emerging Leaders on Buffalo's West Side

Fulfilling the promise

2017 High Road Fellow Nathanael Cheng at Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin Martin House
Emerging Leaders on Buffalo's West Side

Coming Home

A summer of realizations...

2017 High Roader Hannah Sosenko and Fellows on the steps of City Hall
Coming Home

Operating Outside the Comfort Zone

Cathing the Buffalo spirit

One of Grassroots Gardens lots on Buffalo's West Side
Operating Outside the Comfort Zone

How do you increase capacity?

Going above and beyond in Buffalo.

2017 High Road Fellow Emily King at Buffalo City Hall
How do you increase capacity?

It’s All About the Experience

No matter how much you study about or conduct research for something, on-site action takes learning onto another level.

2017 High Road Fellow Margaret Lee and Bryana DiFonzo, Community Development Director for the Westminster Economic Development Initiative
It’s All About the Experience

Why Buffalo? A Reflection on the Labor Movement and Personal Success

My work with the Area Labor Federation of Western New York, AFL-CIO has opened my eyes to how unions function on a political, social, and economic basis.

2017 High Roaders Vanessa Roga and Hannah Sosenko at Silo City
Why Buffalo? A Reflection on the Labor Movement and Personal Success