At Columbia Climate School’s Class Day on May 15, 2026 graduates marked the end of a demanding year across two programs—including the inaugural M.S. in Climate Finance—while speakers tied their training to real-world survival, equity, and coalition-building.
On Friday, May 15, the Columbia Climate School’s fifth cohort of graduating students filled the moment at the school’s 2026 Class Day ceremony—celebrating work that, for many, isn’t fully finished yet.
Alongside the M.A. in Climate and Society cohort, students also watched the inaugural class of the M.S. in Climate Finance take the stage. The two graduating groups, Dean Alexis Abramson said, brought together academic and professional backgrounds as varied as the countries the students 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. ” Abramson told the graduating class.
Abramson returned to the feeling of the day—part celebration, part handoff. “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,” she said.
For many of the students, Class Day was a milestone rather than a formal exit. While most won’t officially graduate until they complete their summer internships or capstone projects in August, the ceremony marked the completion of their coursework and the achievements built across the past year.
Lisa Dale, director of the M.A. in Climate and Society program, told students their education had gone beyond knowledge and skill. “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. ” Dale said. She urged graduates to remember the reasons that brought them to the program. adding that “let that passion fuel your efforts as you move forward into leadership roles where you can make an impact.”.
In the M.S. in Climate Finance program, director Lisa Sachs framed the year as training for the messiness of real decisions. “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. ” Sachs said. She pointed to what students had practiced and what the outside world would demand: “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.”.
The ceremony also carried recognition and momentum. 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. Shaman also recognized the achievements of Climate School associate professor and archaeologist Kristina Douglass. who was recently named a MacArthur Fellow.
For students, pride and hope came through in the speeches that followed. Evan Moretti, president of the Columbia Climate Graduate Council and an M.S. in Climate Finance student, spoke with the conviction of someone looking beyond graduation. “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. ” Moretti said.
Another speaker placed the stakes closer to home. Class Day student speaker Annika Bellot reminded the audience of sacrifices made to get here. then brought the climate crisis down to lived reality. 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. She described how neighbors and communities worked together to overcome extreme climate challenges.
“This is the resilience and spirit of my people: the only reason I stand here today,” Bellot said. “For me and the people of my region, climate change is not an academic pursuit. It is survival.”
She closed by turning that survival into an invitation—asking classmates to move between worlds and keep fairness at the center. “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.”.
The keynote added a different kind of direction: building coalitions strong enough to carry change across sectors. Melanie Nakagawa. corporate vice president and chief sustainability officer at Microsoft. told graduates. “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 then offered reassurance about what comes next. “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.”.
In the end, the ceremony held two truths side by side. The graduates’ coursework is nearing completion—but for many, August still waits with internships and capstone projects. And the work itself—linking science to policy. finance to implementation. and long-term thinking to immediate action—was not treated like a classroom exercise. It was framed as preparation for a world where the climate crisis is already happening. and where survival. fairness. and cooperation will decide what success looks like next.
Columbia Climate School Class Day 2026 M.A. in Climate and Society M.S. in Climate Finance Alexis Abramson Lisa Dale Lisa Sachs Jeff Shaman Kristina Douglass MacArthur Fellow Melanie Nakagawa Microsoft Annika Bellot Dominica climate finance
Class Day?? Sounds like they’re just dressing up the money stuff again.
Survival and equity… ok but how does this help like, today? Also climate finance sounds kinda sus to me like it’s just numbers people.
Wait so this is at Columbia, right? I saw something about “term sheets” and I thought they were talking about real survival gear or like emergency plans, not finance contracts lol. But I mean coalition-building sounds good I guess. Are they saying science and policy are the same thing now?
I skimmed it and honestly it just sounds like more grad school speeches. “Connecting worlds” = they found a way to make climate models sound profitable. And the inaugural M.S. in Climate Finance like… who asked for that? Hopefully the equity part isn’t just wording because communities get ignored every time.