We sat down with Suzie Hicks, who recently received $30,000 in crowd-sourced funding for their children's TV show Suzie Hicks: The Climate Chick. Suzie graduated from Columbia Climate School with a Master’s of Arts. In fall 2021, Suzie took Professor Oren Pizmony-Levy's course “Climate Change, Society, and Education” and came away with more than a few takeaways that inform her work today.
If you would like to support Suzie's work, please use this link here!
How did your show Suzie Hicks The Climate Chick get started?
During the summer of 2017, I interned at the New England Aquarium in college and absolutely fell in love with climate education. That year, I started a college humor web series about sustainability and fell in love with TV production. A few months later, I saw the Mr. Rogers documentary and fell in love with kids' media.
Cut to 2021: I was working full-time in kids’ media and dedicating every free second I had to climate activism, when it hit me that I could marry the two. With a rag-tag group of friends and a green puppet, we shot the pilot episode mostly in my backyard.
We submitted it to a few festivals not really expecting anything. But suddenly, we started winning them. And being invited to come speak on the topic of kids' media. We even made it onto NPR!
The journey of the show has been as meaningful to me as the content. And we’re still just getting started!
I heard that you took Professor Oren Pizmony-Levy's course on Climate Educaiton and you were a student at Columbia Climate School. What did you learn that was important for your work?
Take it outside the classroom!! We learned so much in his class, but the biggest lesson I took from it was an impromptu experiential lab where we actively partook in activism on TC’s campus to get the school to develop a climate action plan.
We stood in hallways to get students to sign petitions, held meetings with top TC administrators and developed a structural pathway forward for the school.
It was amazing.
Congratulations on receiving funding for your show! What does the funding enable you to do now with the show?
We don’t have all of the funding just yet, but I love the enthusiasm! Right now we’re crowdfunding for the first series and during this interview, we are 50% funded. We managed to raise $30k in two weeks and are hoping to double that by the time we finish our crowdfunding campaign on November 19th!
After that, we’re taking the show to investors and sponsors who are aligned with our mission to create a sustainable production model moving forward.
The funding will allow us to travel to different locations and meet real-life climate role models, to compensate our cast and crew equitably, and to take the impact of the show even further by creating impact campaigns and curriculum to use in educational institutions!
The funding will help us to make and share the show far and wide. :)
After years of actually doing climate education through Suzie Hicks The Climate Chick, what have you learned during the process? What knowledge can you share with those who are interested in climate education and communication?
First of all, LET YOUR STUDENTS LEAD. Ask what they are curious about, and what their ideas are, and empower them to make changes in and out of the classroom.
Second of all, THERE ARE ENOUGH PSAs IN THE WORLD. In 2023 and beyond, climate messaging has GOT to have personality and solutions. That is what will set them apart.
Personality doesn’t have to mean flashy. But it does have to mean authentic. If you are coping with climate grief, SHARE THAT. If you are angry at the wealth of fossil fuel executives, SHARE THAT.
We connect through stories and sharing how we feel. And in the climate movement, we use that connection to spur action.
Where do you see your work heading now? What keeps you committed to the work of climate change education?
My dream is to have a long-running kids' show about climate change and climate solutions. And I’m working on that dream little by little every day.
I see my work as a garden, rather than a resume. I plant seeds every single day. Will all of them bloom? No. But some of them do! Even ones I planted years ago and forgot about! And that’s what keeps me going.