The Ulster County Climate Corps Interns are a group of passionate young people who want to help in the fight against climate change. Each intern approached the fight against climate change in a different way. This website represents a culmination of their hard work. Click on an intern project to view their final presentation and see in more detail the work they did this summer!
Emily Bulifant
Green Procurement Policy
Emily helped the purchasing department implement policy in accordance with Executive Order 1.
Alexander Castillo (he/him)
Ulster County Floodplain Management and Solar Carport Assessment
Alexander worked on updating the Hudson Valley Floodplain and later on developed a proposal for solar carport projects around the county utilizing ArcGis Pro and various online resources.
SUNY New Paltz ‘24
Erin-Rose Cooney (she/her)
Workforce Wardrobe
Erin-Rose helped reorganize SUNY Ulster’s workforce wardrobe boutique where students can access any clothes they may need for free. Additionally, helped go through the SUNY Ulster costume closet and donate clothes in good condition to Family of New Paltz, the New Start for Women Program, and more.
SUNY New Paltz ’24
Travis Decker (he/him)
Climate Adaptation Annex for the Current Emergency Management Plan
Travis worked on the climate change adaptation annex for our current emergency management plan. This plan looks at all disasters that can occur within Ulster County and how their effects are amplified due to climate change. The goal is to have this plan give a description of what climate change is doing to disasters and how we can mitigate the damage being done.
Paul Smith’s College ‘24
Maria Domingo (she/her)
County Building HVAC Electrification
Examined and studied the feasibility of electrifying the HVAC units at County buildings.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ‘24
Duke Gandin (he/him)
Climate Corps Dashboard
Duke worked on creating a dashboard to present other interns projects as well as resources relating to the overall issue of climate change. Planned a website to display this info and developed a resource portal to connect individuals to climate rebates/incentives relevent to them.
New Paltz High School ‘24
Naseem Haidaoui (he/him)
Ulster County Climate Justice Outreach Plan
Naseem helped to build the resource toolkit needed to do effective community outreach to our target populations. This included cataloging relevant community organizations, constructing a best practices guide for our outreach, and developing visuals to aid with those outreach efforts.
SUNY New Paltz ’24
Abrielle Hamilton (she/her)
UC Green Business Champions
Abrielle worked on the UC Green Business Champions program to create new sector checklists, research new potential participants, and perform target outreach to businesses. Abrielle also provided support for the climate justice outreach plan including, researching incentives, compiling contact lists and other documents, and building a survey for community engagement.
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry ’24
Rebekah Hendriks
Website & Content Strategy
Working collaboratively with the Executive’s Office and Information Services, Rebekah participated in the discovery and scoping process for the County’s new website and community engagement tools. Rebekah also assisted with creating and curating content for the new website and other digital communication tools.
Zachary Hilty
Accessible Tourism
Zachary worked on highlighting activities in Ulster County that are handicap accessible and how climate change affects disabled individuals abilities to participate.
Rafaela Jennings
Workforce Wardrobe
Rafaela helped reorganize SUNY Ulster’s workforce wardrobe boutique where students can access any clothes they may need for free. Additionally, helped go through the SUNY Ulster costume closet and donate clothes in good condition to Family of New Paltz, the New Start for Women Program, and more.
Adam Koplik (he/him)
Climate Corps Dashboard
Adam set out to create a climate corps dashboard showcasing the work done by the interns over the summer as well as numerous resources and information for Ulster County citizens. Using HTML and ArcGis, created website plans, pages, and detailed dashboards based around how climate change is affecting area residents.
Hamilton College ’25
Elizabeth Kunze (she/her)
Climate Change Adaptation Annex for the Current Emergency Management Plan
Throughout the summer, Elizabeth worked on the climate adaptation annex for the current emergency plan. This involved looking at all hazards facing Ulster County and creating mitigation strategies to better respond to disasters in the future when dealing with the impact of climate change.
Marist College ’25
Misha Kuznetsov (he/him)
Ulster County Floodplain Management and Solar Carport Assessment
Misha worked on updating the Hudson Valley Floodplain and later on developed a proposal for solar carport projects around the county utilizing ArcGis Pro and various online resources.
SUNY New Paltz ‘24
Dylan Moscoso (he/him)
Climate Corps Dashboard
Dylan worked with interns to facilitate project research, presentations and overall processes throughout the summer. Utilized ArcGIS Pro to visualize/analyze climate data with social demographics and information such as disadvantaged community designations on different scales.
SUNY New Paltz ’23
Finn Reiter
UC Green Business Champions
Finn worked on the UC Green Business Champions program to create new sector checklists, research new potential participants, and perform target outreach to businesses.
Wallkill High School ‘24
Roselyn Vargas
Ulster County Climate Justice Outreach Plan
Roselyn helped to build the resource toolkit needed to do effective community outreach to our target populations. This included cataloging relevant community organizations, constructing a best practices guide for our outreach, and developing visuals to aid with those outreach efforts.
Rosalia Villa (she/her)
Greening IT Lifecycles Project
The Greening IT Program focuses on decreasing the environmental impact of the Ulster County Information Services equipment, including computers, monitors, laptops, and accessories. Rosalia spent the summer researching ways to extend the use of this equipment through reuse and repurpose before recycling to minimize the County’s electronic waste.
Hamilton College ’25