On Friday, May 15, Columbia Climate School’s fifth cohort of graduating students celebrated their achievements in the 2026 Class Day ceremony.
This year, alongside the M.A. in Climate and Society cohort, the inaugural class of the M.S. in Climate Finance took the stage. Together, these students represented a range of academic and professional backgrounds as varied as the countries they called home.
“Across both programs, you’ve learned how to connect worlds that too often remain separate: science and policy, finance and implementation, long-term thinking and immediate action. You are economists who understand climate modeling. You are scientists who can read a term sheet, and policy thinkers who keep communities and equity at the center of decision-making,” Alexis Abramson, dean of the Columbia Climate School, addressed the graduating class.
“Take this moment in, celebrate what you’ve accomplished and the community that made it possible, and then carry the work forward. The world needs exactly what you’ve been preparing to give it. Congratulations, Class of 2026,” Abramson said.
While most of the students in these two programs won’t officially graduate until they complete their summer internships or capstone projects in August, Class Day is an opportunity to mark the completion of their coursework and to celebrate all they’ve accomplished over the past year.
“Your education here has equipped you with not just the knowledge and skill base to contribute to solutions, but also to add analytical value and to advocate for change,” said Lisa Dale, director of the M.A. in Climate and Society program. Remember the reasons that brought you to this program, she urged the students, and “let that passion fuel your efforts as you move forward into leadership roles where you can make an impact.”
Lisa Sachs, director of the M.S. in Climate Finance, told the graduates, “Climate change is the perfect training ground for the most important skill anyone develops in a lifetime, which is critical thinking under uncertainty, imperfect information, competing narratives, overlapping considerations, ethical questions that do not resolve neatly—every dimension of the problem is present at once and none of them sits inside a single discipline. Learning what questions to ask, of whom, from what perspective, and how to assemble an answer from incomplete pieces is foundational to a successful and fulfilling career. You’ve spent a year practicing it under conditions that closely resemble the world you’ll be re-entering.”
Jeff Shaman, senior vice dean of the Climate School, congratulated the winners of this year’s Campbell Award, Community Engagement Award and Academic Leadership Award: Marina Saguar Urquiola, Laura Huepenbecker and Aynsley Kretschmar. He also recognized the tremendous achievements of Climate School associate professor and archaeologist Kristina Douglass, who was recently named a MacArthur Fellow.
Students also took the podium with messages of pride and hope. “Columbia Climate School is zealous, compassionate, creative and enduring. Its legacy has only just begun, but its trajectory has already been forever altered and accelerated by this fine group of students sitting before me who will go on and make this world a better place,” M.S. in Climate Finance student Evan Moretti, president of the Columbia Climate Graduate Council, said.
Class Day student speaker Annika Bellot reminded the audience of the important sacrifices they and their families made to be in this room. Bellot spoke about her home in the Caribbean nation of Dominica, a small island that has been pummeled by tropical storms and hurricanes in recent years, and where neighbors and communities have worked together to overcome extreme climate challenges. “This is the resilience and spirit of my people: the only reason I stand here today,” she said. “For me and the people of my region, climate change is not an academic pursuit. It is survival.”
Bellot closed her speech with an invitation to her classmates: “Be translators between worlds that rarely listen. Measure success not only by scale, but by fairness. Choose courage over fear. Choose cooperation over conflict. Remain connected not just as alumni but as collaborators in a lifelong effort larger than any single career. The climate crisis will test our creativity, our endurance and our humanity. And may we face that test together.”
In her keynote address, Melanie Nakagawa, corporate vice president and chief sustainability officer at Microsoft, said: “Climate progress is happening across sectors and industries. And it’s happening because of coalitions of smart, talented, resilient, ambitious and energized students like all of you. You all have the skills today to build these coalitions to make the change possible.”
Nakagawa added: “As you leave here today, please don’t worry too much about the pattern of your career. If it’s not obvious yet, it doesn’t need to be. Go where the action is, even if you have to use a side door to get it. Look for the path that no one else is taking.”
