Dylan Wahbe

Sunrise Movement NYU

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Hub Director and founding member
2020-2023

Select publications

Rolling Stone / Op-ed
We Got NYU to Divest From Fossil Fuels — And That’s Just the Start

The Guardian / Article
New York University Will Divest from Fossil Fuels in Win for Student Activists

Democracy Now! / Interview
Meet Two NYU Sunrise Students Who Helped Push NYU to Divest from Fossil Fuels Experience

Highlights

  • Helped start Sunrise NYU, official chapter of sunrise movement
  • Initially served as Communications director, moved to Hub director
  • Led recruitment, brought in over 300 members
  • Led weekly meetings, leadership meetings, 1:1 leadership team
  • Co-led campaign for fossil fuel divestment at NYU
  • Co-led press rollout, getting featured in international publications like The Guardian and Rolling Stone

Background

I helped start the Sunrise Movement chapter at NYU in 2020. After a semester of recruitment, building a base, and creating some internal structure, we collectively decided to push NYU to divest from fossil fuels. This wasn't a new campaign at NYU, multiple generations of student organizers have pushed NYU to divest from the fossil fuel industry.

When we began our campaign, we reached out to these previous organizers to connect with them, learn from their mistakes and wins, and see where we could pick up from. While these previous campaigns didn't get NYU to divest, they laid the foundation for us. Students mobilized to get NYU to establish a Sustainability Office, made this a key issue amongst the student body, and engaged with faculty and staff to win wide-support. If it wasn't for these efforts, our campaign wouldn't have been able to be successful.

Sunrise Movement NYU / Hub Director 2020 – 2023, New York City & Owned development, communication strategy, and coalition building.J & Grew hub to over 300 active members with a 7 person leadership team4 & Drove communications across multiple channels, gaining 1,300+ Instagram followers, 1,000+ email subscribers with an open rate of 60%, and 2,000+ signatures on fossil free petition4 & Successfully campaigned NYU to divest from the fossil fuel industry, led press rollout to get featured in international publications.