Zicklin Undergrads Travel to England to Present Original Climate Change Research   

Zicklin undergraduates Nikala D’Aguiar (BBA, ’23) and Jenny Ho (BBA, ’24) were two-thirds of a Baruch College team of students who traveled to the United Kingdom in April to present their original research on climate change. The trip was funded by a $10,000 grant from Colgate-Palmolive.  

Together with Weissman student Samia Alam (BA, ’24), the trio are Baruch College Climate Changemakers who took part in Baruch’s Heat Island Resiliency Project, led by Professor Mindy Engle-Friedman of the Department of Psychology. They spent two years collecting and collating data from low-income neighborhoods in New York City, which they used to create a real-time snapshot of the effects of climate change.

The students presented their research at the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR), held on April 5 and 6 at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. Over 70 other colleges around the world were represented at the conference.  

 “Many of my Zicklin classes discussed the impact of climate change on humanity and business,” said Jenny Ho, who is majoring in operations management and consulting. “There is a need to focus on working with local and underserved communities.” She added that her Zicklin School coursework in statistics and data analytics helped her “turn numbers into insights.”  

Nikala D’Aguiar, a marketing major who grew up on a farm in Guyana, said she signed up for the project as soon as she heard about it: “It’s opened so many doors for me.” Her Zicklin education helped her with analyzing the data, she added, and the business communications class she took last year was especially useful when it came time to prepare the presentation for the conference.  

“I’ve always been passionate about taking care of the planet,” Nikala summed up. “My family used to say, ‘We need to take care of Mother Earth because she provides for us.’” 

Categories: Current_Students, News, Research