Students and faculty from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa joined representatives from around the world at the 2025 Korea University Climate Corps Summer School, held July 6–13, in Seoul.
The week-long program brought together 84 students and 23 faculty members from 35 colleges across North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the Pacific to develop action-based solutions to the world’s changing climate.
Representing UH Mānoa were students Kapuaonaona Mersberg and Edgardo Diaz Vega, and Assistant Professor Ketty Loeb from the UH Mānoa Institute for Sustainability and Resilience.
“In an increasingly divided and tense global environment, the Seoul Climate Corps provided me with a space to learn from experts dedicated to addressing climate change while providing hands-on experience developing climate policy pitches and action plans,” said Diaz Vega, a graduate student and sea level rise policy research assistant with Pacific RISA.
A large part of the conference focused on student crafted research pitches and policy proposals under the mentorship of faculty advisors.
Mersberg presented her team’s policy pitch, “Reviving Local Food and Biodiversity for a Thriving Pacific.” The proposal advocates for integrating indigenous knowledge into food systems in Fiji, Hawaiʻi and the Federated States of Micronesia to enhance food security and biodiversity. It calls for government-funded, community-led consultations to ensure that policy development is rooted in the lived experiences and Indigenous knowledge systems of Pacific Island communities.
Mersberg’s team, guided by faculty mentor Loeb, highlighted the importance of ancestral knowledge and collaboration between government and private sectors in building resilient food systems.
In addition to mentoring students, Loeb also presented her own research, “Moving the Dial on Sea Level Rise Adaptation Policy.”
A collaborative approach
The program’s 2025 theme, “Cross-border Collaboration to Address the Climate Crisis,” emphasized the importance of international collaboration and cooperation.
“We need to work together and start holding ourselves and each other accountable for global climate impact,” said Mersberg, an interdisciplinary sustainability student at UH Mānoa. “Especially with the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, it is now more important than ever to apply pressure on the climate targets set in those agreements.”
Participants also visited key sites in Seoul that demonstrate best practices in eco-friendly urban planning, renewable energy, and waste management, underscoring the importance of knowledge sharing and cross-border collaboration.
“My biggest takeaway is that we absolutely need global connection and engagement to combat the climate crisis,” Mersberg said.
