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Michelle Rozenfeld | Otter.ai

Michelle Rozenfeld

JOSHUA JACOB30min

JOSHUA JACOB

00:01

All right. Recording starting now. Okay, so before we start, could you please do me a favor and provide me your full name, pronouns, graduation, year and your school and also, could you also tell me your Net ID? This last part isn't going to be shared anywhere. It's more just for me and my supervisors for confirmation purposes. Sure.

Michelle Rozenfeld

00:26

Yeah, so my name is Michelle Rosenfeld. My pronouns are she, her. I'm a first year majoring or in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences steps. And my net ID is MTR, 135,

JOSHUA JACOB

00:44

awesome. Thank you so much.

JOSHUA JACOB

00:46

All right, so to start us off, especially for anyone who has not read the book yet, could you explain what teen climate challenge, what teen climate change is about, and what would you tell potential readers to spark their interest?

Michelle Rozenfeld

01:02

Yeah, of course. So teen climate changers, that's the short title for it. It's essentially a book that is like a career guide, in a way, kind of like a toolkit for young teens, or sorry young adults and teens to kind of learn more about what you know, what careers and what inspirations are out there in sustainability, but also just generally, for someone who's interested in, you know, preserving and kind of in our someone who's interested in our environment. So you know this, this is like a compilation of 26 different field interviews, and it involves insights from all these professionals. You know, there's there's people who are in law, there's educators, there's pharmacists who have done work in, you know, sustainable, sustainable medicine, things like that. So there's a wide range of different careers and interests covered in the book. So it's really just to provide inspiration, especially for people who might not know what they want to do in the future. Awesome.

JOSHUA JACOB

02:10

And so what first inspired you to write this book? What made you feel that, you know, this was the book that needed to be made right now?

Michelle Rozenfeld

02:18

Yeah, of course. So you know, I've always, I've always been interested in, you know, environmental, you know, solutions and kind of, you know, environmental processes. And, you know, in high school, I was gaining exposure to so many different environmental and climate, you know, professions, because I knew that I was interested in this. But I I just, I kind of knew that, you know, especially for undergrad, it would have been nice to, like, narrow down my interest in a way, because, you know, coming in with, like this, great, like this, grand, like curiosity for all things climate, you know, I knew that if I wanted to do something meaningful, I would kind of, you know, need to start exploring what interests me what doesn't interest me. And so the way that I kind of did that was talking to all these professionals, and you know, some of them I knew from pre college programs, I did, you know, some of them I, you know, just kind of reached out to, but all these individuals provided something valuable. And sorry I, like, missed part. Like, your question was, like, what inspired me to write the book, right? Okay, so it was basically Yeah, and like, What? What? What made me think that there's, like, a need for it. So it was basically just the fact that, you know, for someone who might be going through it in my shoes, and who has this interest for climate, but doesn't really know where to start, I thought that this would be a really valuable resource for that type of person who might have, like this, you know, large curiosity, but kind of needs or like, you know, kind of would, would appreciate some sort of guidance in in the field. So yeah,

JOSHUA JACOB

04:05

nice.

JOSHUA JACOB

04:08

Now I'm sure that you might know that there are some people who you know don't believe in climate change. So what do you think are like the biggest misconceptions that you know young people have about climate change?

Michelle Rozenfeld

04:22

Yeah, so, um, you know, I know, I know that a lot of professionals that I've spoken to, that was kind of a question that I asked them to, you know, like, how do you deal with, you know, climate change deniers, and a lot of them actually talk about, you know, strategies that they use in the field. Because I interview people from, you know, NGOs and all sectors of you know, the government, and even, like in other countries, just working in different types of jobs, and you know, all of them, basically like, say something along the realms of you know, trying to to speak to certain interests of people, and not necessarily, like mentioning climate maybe, like, you know, kind of, if someone is more interested in like, like, economic incentives, kind of mentioning those, and, you know, trying to make decisions that still benefit the environment, but Not necessarily using those, like, words that might spark, you know, like kind of argument or, you know, so basically, using words that, in like, talking to people, it really takes a lot of practice. And even myself, I don't have a lot of experience with talking to climate change deniers. It really takes, you know, a profession. But in terms of, like, getting young people to believe in climate change, I would say, you know, really, just go out into the world and talk to people, you know, especially, I think at my age, like I have something to compare, you know, my present life to, compared to, like, when I was younger, when there was, first of all, like, a lot more snow, less, you know, climate disasters. But I think as a young person, being curious is like, the number one thing, like asking people, if you notice, like, hey, like, there's a lot of, like, rain happening, and it's, like, very hot this summer, and, you know, it's very uncomfortable. It's making me feel uncomfortable, like noticing those feelings, noticing, kind of, if you don't have anything to compare it to maybe, you know, just going out and talking to people is like how I would say someone could get inspired. But, you know, if one doesn't have the curiosity, then I think it's very hard to, you know, get them to listen, or even to, like, hear, to like, understand the importance of, like, working with climate change. All right,

JOSHUA JACOB

06:54

you have, sorry, that was a long answer. No, you're good. Honestly, actually, that kind of brings up a follow up question when you're like, interviewing all these people where have been, like, some changes from, you know, your childhood in the past to now, when it comes to climate, whether it's little snow or too much rain, or especially in, like, the state of New Jersey, like weather is very unknown. Yeah,

Michelle Rozenfeld

07:16

sure. So I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and I moved to, like, North Jersey when I was seven, and I remember, like hurricane Sandy very well. My parents tried to hide kind of the, you know, the extreme, the extremity of it. And there was another hurricane before where we didn't expect it, or we expected it to be worse, and then it wasn't that bad. But with Sandy, we kind of thought that it wasn't going to be as bad as it was, and then we had to, like, you know, kind of leave and kind of move, like, like, basically leave our house for a few days. So there was just a lot of, I would say, you know, like when I was younger, I was kind of noticing these small things, these small changes here and there. And I would ask people questions. I remember in elementary school, I would see like the ground, and I didn't really know what like erosion was, or even like compaction at the time, but I just noticed, like the ground had like cracks in it, and there was no grass in certain areas. And I was curious as to why that was, and, you know, I never really got answers, because I feel like I there were no professionals at the time who really studied this that I had exposure to. But now looking back, I realized, like, hey, this might have been due to climate related things. So yeah, I would say like, you know, I did notice these things as a child, but there wasn't a lot out there to kind of inform these questions that I had right

JOSHUA JACOB

08:51

Speaking of which, as part of your book, you had to interview 26 experts in the field, I'm sure that must have been, you know, quite a lot of time needed to make sure you had every single story heard and written. Were there any challenges that you faced when trying to, you know, reach out to them and get them to want to speak for your book?

Michelle Rozenfeld

09:09

Of course, yeah. So

Michelle Rozenfeld

09:13

it's being that all of these people are from all around the world. You know, the most obvious challenge was time differences, so having to coordinate that, and all of these interviews were done through zoom, so that made it a lot easier. But, you know, a lot like, sometimes these individuals had, you know, commitments. Like one of the individuals that I originally had in the book went on maternity leave, and so actually getting, like, their permission to be in the book, you know, like two of the individuals who I originally interviewed so the book actually has 24 interviews right now but I interviewed 26 So I have two transcripts that were not approved in time for the book's publication so those will come out in like a subsequent edition. But yeah, I would say like the main challenge is really, I guess, because. this is such a, you know, it takes so much, you know, out of these people to kind of, like, share basically about their whole entire career, about all their inspirations. It really does take a lot of time and energy and so that whole process, like the back and forth

Michelle Rozenfeld

10:21

communication, getting the transcripts approved by them. It's kind of like writing articles and like, you know, for like short short like articles, news stories, things like that. And like having quotes, but think of like a 30 minute, sometimes an hour long transcript. And like trying to write, like, you know, not even like a brief, but it's trying to write a brief, but you're trying to make it engaging. And really, like, cover so much about this person. So really, like, you know, like going through details, making sure everything is correct, and that the person really did say those things. And obviously, sometimes they would say things that they didn't actually mean. And so they would come back, they would go back and, like, you know, we'd call again, or they'd email me and they'd say, hey, like, maybe change this. Because some things also, like, you know, when people talk, sometimes they don't necessarily, like, they might say something, for example, like something political that they wouldn't want in the story. So like having to go through and remove things like that to not have the book like biased about certain things, that was also a bit of a tedious process. But yeah, okay,

JOSHUA JACOB

11:36

did any expert explain climate change in a way that you know completely shifted your understanding of the crisis.

Michelle Rozenfeld

11:43

That's a very good question. I like all these 26 injuries. So just to give you some like background, I started this book before my junior year of high school, and I'm a first year in front in college right now. So these interviews were conducted a long time ago, but I was going through the transcripts fairly recently. but it's all kind of jumbled together in my brain. There were so many different things that they said I don't know if there is one single, you know, thing that kind of shifted my perspective, I think, as each interview was being conducted there were certain themes that were being repeated and that's kind of how I. was also able to like group these individuals into, like, like themes or like you know they have like common threads because I asked quite similar questions but I tried to like you know, adjust them to like based on each person. I'm trying to think, Oh, I think one of the first things like off the bat. So this was actually said by show mcverma, who is a, well, he was, at the time, like, a PhD student at MIT, but he's basically, like, in engineering. And he told me that, you know, it's really important that you mix, like, hard skills with soft skills, and be able to, like, you know, integrate the two. And I feel like that's really important right now, as an environmental policy major interested in, like, the social sciences, that's like, something that social scientists have to do, like, use quantitative and qualitative methods, mixed method research. So there's, like, a lot of implications of that. I think it's like, important for any scholar or like, young adult or teen to like, be able to have, like, you know, a hard skill background, per se, but also, like, have good soft skills and like other kind of, you know, like skills or like qualities that make them, like, valuable,

JOSHUA JACOB

13:36

awesome. And you earlier mentioned how you have started writing this back in your junior year, but you're currently a freshman, yes, so I'm curious, like, what's been like the writing process been since it's been that long between you writing and then,

Michelle Rozenfeld

13:52

yeah, of course. So

Michelle Rozenfeld

13:55

the writing process, so I just a little bit of background. I don't know if you want to include this, but like, I went to, like, a Magnet High School, and it was like a vocational high school, so it was very time consuming, just like, throughout the year. And, you know, I was very involved in, like, research opportunities. And I honestly, like, right after those interviews were done, they were done in the summer before junior year and junior and senior year, I would write the book in like, really small chunks, like, take upon myself really small tasks, like, you know, going through the transcripts. And I did have a book coach for a little bit, you know, going through, like, ideas of how to, like, form up the book. And I kind of, I felt myself being pulled towards, like, what other people were doing in school. So, like, my school was very research heavy. People were, you know, doing a bunch of other things, like extracurriculars clubs. And I kind of wanted to do that as well, because I knew that that would be, like, important for my future, like for my undergraduate. So I kind of left the book aside for a little bit, just because it was kind of daunting at the moment, like being a rising junior, I feel like at some points there wasn't a lot of guidance, especially because this is, like, a new subject, and like, nobody's really, like, compiled, nobody's really done, like, not to, like, say it like This, like, nobody's really done what I've done before. It might have, like, compiled, you know, like, like a guide, but like, not with these people and like, you know, they haven't really had the same insights that I have. So it was just, long story short, it was kind of hard to, you know, figure out how to best put this out into a book. But I think luckily, like, right before my undergrad, I realized, hey, I really want to actually, like, put out this book before I turn 18, before I'm an undergraduate student. So I finally, like, reached that goal. I did think I was going to publish it when I was 15, but 17 still works.

JOSHUA JACOB

16:00

So, nice. I might ask some more book related questions later, but I want to jump back to like the actual content of the book. So in your opinion, what's the most underrated climate solution that deserves more attention?

Michelle Rozenfeld

16:19

Most underrated climate solution, that's that's a good question. So a lot of these people have very different climate solutions, because they're all from different fields. One of the ones that I was thinking of recently was, you know, I mean, there's so many different solutions. Could you clarify, like, what you mean, like solution to a specific solution to a specific problem, or just like in general, like a solution, yeah?

JOSHUA JACOB

16:49

Like, just like a general, like solution, of like, how to solve climate change, or how to solve a certain part of climate change, yeah?

Michelle Rozenfeld

16:57

So I feel like there's, well, there's two examples come to mind, but they're kind of different. Like one of them was actually, this is show mix project as well. He was telling me how, in his, I want to say his undergraduate, he won, like a Guinness World Record with like, a team of students, because they built, like a hydrogen car, and they like, ran it at some car race, and, like, that was, like, completely clean energy. And, like, it was super innovative. And I was, like, hearing that, I'm like, Oh my gosh. And then apparently he won another one when he did like, a second trial. So that's, like, I guess, a climate solution, like, you know, hydrogen powered cars. That's, like, very technical on the social side of things, um, you know, a solution would be to this is, like, more collaborative, but like, you know, and this, this might be kind of self explanatory. I don't know if anyone's explicitly mentioned this, but like, I know for myself, like I have spoken to professionals that have encouraged youth to, you know, write about climate topics that they're interested in, and try to, like, you know, Gage, you know, interest in those things, and kind of spread the word about various things. So, like one of those, one of the ways that you can do that is through audiobook narrating. So I was an audiobook narrator for Learning Ally, which is like this platform, and although I didn't narrate explicitly, like climate change books, like being able to kind of do things like that, like, you know, like reading books out loud about climate change, or just really anything that would like, inspire Like different levels or like different ages to, you know, think more about this subject. So it's not like a really direct solution, but it it's like, in the long run, it might help, you know, people become more inclined to, you know, solve climate change. Wow, that's pretty good.

JOSHUA JACOB

19:02

In your interviews, did any experts talk about what makes today's youth especially equipped to lead climate change efforts?

Michelle Rozenfeld

19:12

That's a great question. Yeah, I that was like one, basically. That was a question that I asked almost everybody. So many people mentioned the use of social media, because social media connects us all, even though it does have its drawbacks, it is a great resource for people to express their opinions and also share things on a platform with, you know, people their own age, but also people that are might be older or younger. So that's like, a, you know, something that we have that other generations didn't. And then also, like, you know, the spread of information through that, like, the pace at which information is shared is a lot faster. And then also just the fact that climate change is now defined and people are actively working on it, because a lot of the people that I've spoken to, like they went to school in like, the 70s, the 80s, climate change was not a thing back then. It wasn't even like a major, and so one of the professionals I was talking to actually made the environmental science major in his university. So I think now that we have these resources, it's a lot easier to find your community and, you know, actually make a change like and like make like continue the legacy of something that already started. So, yeah,

JOSHUA JACOB

20:35

um, what would you say has been like, the biggest takeaway from any of the experts you've heard of far from

Michelle Rozenfeld

20:43

Yeah, that's also a hard question, because I think this, this whole process, really gave me a different outlook on, like, just my future, because I know that I want to do something in the environmental sciences and environmental policy in law, this really just changed my outlook on things. Like, I've never felt so equipped and like supported and really just like motivated to do something in the field. Because not only have I spoken to 26 like professionals, but I've also gotten insights into, like, 26 different unique paths, and like, what a career in climate might look like. So I would say like that might be my biggest takeaway from this project. It's not necessarily like advice, but more like, it's not a piece of advice, it's more this experience gave me this like, you know, like viewpoint and kind of like mindset about the future and like, kind of it gave me like confidence to to like share this with others, and be able to like also make insights on my own. So I think, yeah, really just confidence and like inspiration, right?

JOSHUA JACOB

22:01

Um, um, how do you actually know? Let me press that as a current Rutgers student, what has it been like managing both your responsibilities as a student and also being an author as well as, you know, any club positions or anything else you have on campus? Yeah.

Michelle Rozenfeld

22:20

So yeah, I'm still trying to figure that out, because I am just in my first semester. We just got done with midterms. So you know, I've only been at Rutgers for three months, but so far, I I'm really grateful for my high school, for, like, allowing me to be able to, like, manage so many different things at once. I think I'm luckily, like, I find Rutgers a lot more fitting to like the type of person that I am, especially like with I have, like, so much experience with, like, time management through high school even, like, even learning from the fact that I kind of like, neglected to write my book for so long. Like, that's kind of like motivating me now to, like, speak out about it, and, like, tell people about it. Like, when people say, Oh, share a fun fact about yourself, I'll say, Oh. Like, I wrote a book, so kind of, like incorporating it into, like, my daily conversations. And like, if I'm speaking to professors, or, like, I attended a talk the other day, and like, I kind of just brought this up because they were talking about, like, careers and, like the job market. And I was like, hey, like, that's very true. I kind of saw that when I talked to 26 people in the book that I wrote. So kind of like being like open and like listening to people. I've been doing that a lot at Rutgers, and I really like that there's, like, so many different people and like, just like experiences that I can like relate to here,

JOSHUA JACOB

23:45

awesome. And speaking of trying to get your story out there more in your classrooms, what has been the processing, process of publishing a book and making sure you know your story was shared with the world?

Michelle Rozenfeld

23:59

Yeah, so I did self publish this book, so I had to, kind of, you know, learn, and my book coach did help me a bit with this. But I think a lot of the actual, like nitty gritty, like publishing details and like, you know, where I can format it, things like that, where I can publish it. A lot of that was kind of just through, like, Google searches, trying to see, like, you know, and I honestly don't remember exactly how I found it, but, you know, I did have, you know, at this point, like, over the summer, whenever I was doing this, I did have like, kind of a, you know, an idea in mind of what I wanted to do. And I think, you know the process of, like, actually publishing it. It's still a little bit so it is published. But a lot of people are actually, like, asking me, like, hey, is this, is this available on Amazon? Is this available, like, in the bookstores, and the website that I used, it needs to, like, approve it first, and so that's kind of it's gonna take, like, a few months for it to be like, available everywhere. But so right now it's like, available on lulu.com which is like a publisher website, I want to say. So that's like, where I formally published it. But I also use like, other, you know, platforms to, you know, do like the text and things like that. I don't know if that answers your question, but

JOSHUA JACOB

25:27

yeah, no, that's good. I also asked because I actually have met people who have been interested in writing their own book, so ran them. What would be your advice?

Michelle Rozenfeld

25:38

So I actually talked to a student at my old high school about this, like, literally last week, she was writing, like a different type of book than I would, than I did. But I guess my advice is to talk to other people that have done this, and, you know, share your idea. And you know, definitely like, do Google searches. I would say, like Google helped me so much with this, especially, like, for teens, or like, you know, Gen Z, like, I feel like Google is a really big thing, or not, not even Gen Z, but like, you know, other like, young adults who might be interested in, like, writing books, I would say also, like reading blogs helped me. I think on a blog, I think that's where I found, like, lulu.com and like, someone used it and, you know, they kind of, like detailed their process and things like that. So, yeah, I would say, I would say, Google, talk to people. And like, don't be afraid to ask questions about the process, because it looks different for everybody. Okay?

JOSHUA JACOB

26:40

And last thing, and it's more a follow up to the question you just answered, is there any advice that you wish you had gotten when you first started writing the book?

Michelle Rozenfeld

26:50

Wait, sorry, could you repeat the first part? Any advice before I started writing the

JOSHUA JACOB

26:54

book? Yeah, like, any advice that you wish you had gotten when you were, you know, still a junior and want to first write the book?

Speaker 1

27:00

Okay, advice I would have gotten, okay? So I would say,

Michelle Rozenfeld

27:07

I would say, like, I'm really happy with the advice that I got, because these professionals basically gave me advice, like, when they were like, Wow, I'm so proud of you for doing this, like, You're so young, like, you know, and they really, like, gave me, like, the I feel like, the courage that they gave me, like the motivation kind of helped me with, like, everything else, I would say for sure, there were like, uncertain moments, like patch like, kind of like areas where I was kind of like lost, but that was more because I didn't, like, fully dedicate my mind To this, like, because of, like, high school and everything it was, it was a really stressful time. So I think once I was actually done with that, and I was able to, you know, like, narrow it down, I would say, you know, the biggest thing would, you know, I think, yeah, like, the all the advice that I that's a really bad, like, answer, but I could share the advice that they gave me, because I think I got all the advice that I needed, and I'm very grateful for it. You know, one thing that they said was, like, this is a really important topic, and you don't want to kind of leave that off to the side and, like, risk someone else. Like, writing about it before you it's not necessarily what they said, but like, I'm kind of saying it like that, and kind of like, you know, this is a really important thing, and you know, you want to kind of share this with the world and inspire people. So that's kind of like a motivation, not necessarily, like advice, because I wouldn't say necessarily, got advice about the actual like, publishing process, because it looks different for everyone. As I said, Awesome.

JOSHUA JACOB

28:47

Well, thank you so much, and I hope you have a great day.

Michelle Rozenfeld

28:52

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And will the article like be shared with me just like, approve the quotes before it's like, sent to

JOSHUA JACOB

29:03

so I'm not sure if Nick or Sophia mentioned this, but, like, it was, like, this, like, contract thing, of like, I'm not allowed to, like, share you the stuff. Oh, really, yeah,

Michelle Rozenfeld

29:13

okay, that's fine. Yeah, that's fine. About that, yeah, it's fine. It's fine. Like, I'm I'm pretty confident in everything that I said, except for like, maybe, like, don't mention, like, stuff about my school. Like, I don't know. Like, you could say that I was, like, stressed and stuff, but like, I don't know. I think everything I said was like, Fine, okay, yeah, yeah. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you doing this again. It was really fun to, like, talk to you, and I'm excited to see you know, this, like, kind of highlighted like out on the daily target website. So

JOSHUA JACOB

29:45

yeah, of course, thank you for let me interview you. Yes. Have a great rest of your day. All right. You too. Bye. You.

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