Sydney Collins

Sustainability Coordinator for Regional Campuses

Sydney is a passionate climate advocate who graduated from UConn in the Spring of 2023. During her time at UConn, she engaged with UConn Co-Op program alongside the national AmeriCorps program as a Community Engagement & Green Infrastructure VISTA in the City of Buffalo. With incredible mentorship, she gained invaluable experience in municipal government around city planning and community outreach including but not limited to climate vulnerability assessments, water affordability, blue and green infrastructure development, community revitalization initiatives, workforce development, and GIS-based data analysis.

Back at the UConn campus, she served separately as the Sustainability Coordinator and Student Services Director with the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) where she became more deeply involved with environmental advocacy and programming at the university and state level. Alongside other student leaders, she helped engage students to advocate for state policy around climate education, expand campus infrastructure with more water bottle filling stations, and support the establishment of Fossil-Fuel-Free UConn (FFFU) to demand carbon zero campus emissions.

Her commitment to climate justice was furthered as a UConn@COP fellow, where she was able to attend COP27 in Egypt and meet a diversity of incredible global climate champions. Her work is now driven by her understanding of the root causes of the climate crisis and her dedication for seeking liberation from intersecting issues including racial, LGBTQIA+, gender, and neurodivergent injustice and oppression.

Currently, Sydney is also a member of the New Haven, CT chapter of the Sunrise Movement, which is a national youth-led climate advocacy organization. She aims to promote a current anti-fossil fuel campaign called @StopProjectMaple to demand a stop to fossil fuel expansion in the Northeast by the company Enbridge.

In her free time, Sydney enjoys bicycling, practicing yoga, holding space for recovery, and dancing hip hop mediocrely.