During her senior year at Fisk University, a historically Black university in Nashville, Tennessee, Aliyah Collins, MDiv ’23, witnessed the aftermath of climate disaster firsthand.
A storm in March 2020 brought a series of tornadoes to the Nashville area that devastated surrounding communities, including historically Black North Nashville. At that time, Collins was a full-time student and also working part-time.
“It was difficult navigating school and work and trying to recover from this climate disaster,” said Collins. “People don’t really understand the long impact of what it means to recover from a lot of these disasters … there’s stress, issues of depression and anxiety.”
The effects the intense storm and tornadoes had on Collins, her fellow students, and those nearby communities stuck with her, and the experience influenced her current mission: The Eco Healing Project. Collins founded the project as a way to shed light on the impact climate disasters have on students attending historically Black colleges and universities and as a tool to help them in the aftermath.
From hurricanes and floods to water shortages and lead in drinking water, negative or violent experiences with nature can be detrimental to a person’s understanding of how to use nature as a tool for healing, or how to see themselves as interconnected to nature and the environment, said Collins.
Unequal access to nature spaces can also be detrimental. While working in Chicago as an intern at Trinity United Church of Christ, Collins had an apartment near Lake Michigan and would regularly visit the waterfront. Those interactions with nature improved her mental health and made her more positive and relaxed. During her time there, Collins went on to learn that there were children who spent their entire lives in Chicago who had never been to that waterfront. It is “disparaging,” she said, that there is unequal access to green spaces.
“I started to think about my own community. We really didn’t have equal access to a lot of green spaces, and that impacted our mental health whether we knew it or not,” she said.
For her Eco Healing Project, Collins focused on HBCUs because they are often under resourced.
“There aren’t enough gardens on HBCU campuses in general. Very few have garden infrastructure outside of whatever agricultural program they have. A lot of HBCUs suffer from that because they don’t have the same resources as other top tier institutions,” she said. “A lot of HBCUs also don’t have strong therapy resources.”
Collins’s project would, for those HBCUs that do have gardens, provide students planting or gardening with a specific framework that would improve their mental health. An individual’s growth plan, Collins said, would follow the same principles of gardening—planting, sowing, watering, and nourishing the seed and figuring out what the seed needs to grow.
“You would apply those principles to your own life. Being patient in your own life. Persevering in your own life,” said Collins. “It’s about learning lessons from nature and using that to enhance your mental health and seeing it as a spiritual practice.”
At HDS, exploring moral teachings and historical contexts are some of the ways in which the School and its community seek to advance a more sustainable future for all. For Collins, who enrolled at HDS after participating in the Diversity and Explorations Program, her time at HDS has led her to study various models of spiritual care, especially in marginalized communities, and her work is at the intersection of environmental justice, racial justice, and spiritual care. She is also pursuing a Certificate in Religion and Public Life.
Collins’s project is already attracting support. In January, Collins was selected as one of five people to take part in the Tom's of Maine Incubator. The seven-month program comes with $20,000 in funding to support the work, plus access to expert mentors and opportunities to collaborate with and receive support from Tom's of Maine in amplifying their work in sustainability.
"The Tom's of Maine Incubator was created to elevate the next generation of BIPOC climate leaders who are rarely reflected or engaged in finding climate change solutions. Each of our winners have already accomplished so much, and we are honored to work with them toward even more impact," Cristiane Martini, General Manager, Tom's of Maine, said in a statement. "With the additional funding and mentorship our Incubator provides, Tom's of Maine looks forward to helping our Incubator members drive environmental solutions and empower others to make a positive impact."
Tom’s of Maine was founded by HDS alumnus, Thomas Chappell, MTS ’91, and his wife Kate, in 1970. They sold a majority stake in the company in 2006.
Collins said her goal when she completes the seven-month incubator program is to have her project officially introduced and actively working on an HBCU campus.
“What I want to come out of it, if students are experiencing issues of anxiety, depression, or stress, I want them to see this is a tool, a therapeutic resource that you can use,” she said. “I want people to understand the healing benefits of nature, and how important nature is for our holistic health.”
—by Michael Naughton