Meet Sia Gu, our 2024 Cornell High Road Fellow!

This summer the Clean Air Coalition is a host site for the Cornell High Road Fellowship program – Sia Gu is a 2025 expected graduate who has been working with us on a number of research projects, and will be wrapping up her fellowship with us at the end of July. The following is an introduction she wrote for herself.

Dear Clean Air Members and Supporters,

Hope everyone is doing well! It’s my pleasure to introduce myself as Clean Air Coalition’s summer intern through Cornell University’s High Road Fellowship program. I am very grateful for this opportunity and look forward to working with everyone at Clean Air throughout the summer.

Growing up in Beijing, China, this summer was the first time I visited Buffalo. I’ve had an amazing time roaming through different neighborhoods, exploring new cafes with friends, and immersing myself in all that Buffalo has to offer during the summertime. I’m confident that this is the first, but not the last time, that I’ll be in Buffalo. No matter where I go after this summer, I’ll take everything I’ve learned and experienced, and will always think of returning to this beautiful city.

Interning at Clean Air has helped me recognize the environmental justice concerns lying under some of my surface-level experiences—from how a peaceful neighborhood could be right next to a polluted brownfield to factories emitting toxic waste that could go unnoticed until people fell sick. These narratives of environmental injustice—with working-class communities and people of color being disproportionately impacted by pollution—are not unfamiliar. In Beijing, as the city sprawls and expands, new construction sites never cease springing up. Dust, noise, and other health consequences are always at the back of everyone’s head but never adequately addressed. This is on top of the severe smog in 2013 that people are still recovering from. Or not even recovering, still experiencing; people who live near manufacturing facilities and cannot afford air purifiers in their homes still breathe in the oftentimes polluted air. Not to mention migrant workers and homeless people who are constantly directly exposed to air pollutants outside. I still recall a middle school field trip in 2017 when the Beijing air quality was supposedly already “fixed” and there were barely any smoggy days in the city. When we went to the suburbs and a bit further to nearby cities, we passed by large factories with black smoke floating out from the smokestacks. The air in central Beijing was improved at the cost of moving factories away from the city center to these “less important” neighborhoods. Low-income communities have no say in the air they breathe and have no one to turn to who can address the problem.

Knowing who to inform and consult is crucial when facing environmental challenges, especially when local governmental agencies fail to acknowledge the issue. Clean Air struck me with its close collaboration with Buffalo residents, its continued effort to mitigate the impact of polluting facilities, and its focus on bringing sustainable economic models for regions around Buffalo. With my prior personal and professional experiences in environmental justice, I am excited to work with Clean Air and contribute to greater Buffalo communities.

In Solidarity,

Sia Gu

High Road Fellow

Clean Air Coalition of WNY