Steps for Change: Reflecting on the Right to Know H₂O
- hrandhawa93
- Feb 25
- 4 min read
“With hope and a bright vision for the future, I consider a Right-to-Know H2O beyond my campus as an organization that can help create faster and safer travel toward clean drinking water”
-Silas Gonzalez, Campus Director at Pace University for the Millennium Fellowship 2025
Water is one of the most essential resources on Earth and a fundamental part of all aspects of our lives. However, according to WHO, 2.1 billion people around the globe still lack access to safe drinking water. This is exactly why Professor John Cronin began the Right-to-Know H20 project at Seidenberg School of Computer Science at Pace University. Internationally recognised for his career in water and environmental rights, Professor Cronin together with Professor Leanne Keeley formed “Blue Colab” on university grounds - a space for students, interns, graduate assistants, faculty, and staff to advance the technology, information and warning systems that bring current water data to the community. Overlooking the Hudson River, the Choate Pond lab on Pace University’s campus, and the data lab in the academic center, Blue CoLab is focused on examining the quality of all water, whether you drink it, swim, or fish in it. All this work and more has motivated Silas Gonzalez to join the team to continue the work connected to water rights and access.
Silas acted as one of the Campus Directors for the cohort at Pace University during the Millennium Fellowship class of 2025. “When we all first met this season, I was as happy to see familiar faces as I was to meet new people. We held regular meetings to plan and bond with each other throughout the fellowship. I feel lucky to have gotten to know such wonderful people, and I feel even luckier for our group to span between the United States and Finland. This was something none of us have ever done before and I speak for my cohort when I say we were all super excited to meet the people in Häme University of Applied Sciences!”, he shared. The biggest highlight from the collaboration of 2 universities was the in-person meeting in New York, where CDs from Finland, Kira and Ampra, had a chance to visit Pace University, United Nations Building, and Manhattan. Through their joint project, despite being ocean apart from each other, both campuses produced a video, which represented 13 countries and showcased how the right to clean & accessible water is a right of every person on the planet. “Therefore, I sincerely hope we show that if our group can get things like this done from different areas, then there is nothing stopping anyone from taking their project as far as they can”, says Silas.
For Silas Gonzalez, participating in the Right-to-Know H2O meant learning more about the privileges that can be accidentally overlooked simply because of how common they are in our personal lives - e.g. a water fountain in the hall or a full fridge in the cafeteria. “How even though we have something that can benefit us individually at the ready, it does not mean everyone does. Through the act of putting yourself into someone else’s perspective and imagining what they might be going through, I believe the only reactions you can receive from that are to be grateful for your own blessings as well as try to spread those blessings as far as possible”, he reflected.
As part of the Millennium Fellowship, the team organized an event called “The Water Walk” that fulfilled the goal of rallying people and spreading awareness of how women and children have to bravely carry large buckets of water on their head to bring clean water to their communities in other countries. “At Pace, members of Right-to-Know H2O and Blue Colab had gathered several buckets of water and towels, with the intention of having Pace students ‘walk a mile in the shoes’ of these women and children, taking the buckets of water on their head and carrying it across campus.
Thanks to the strong dedication and commitment of these teams, over 60 students showed up on a weekend to help our cause. The sheer amount of effort, passion, and drive in every person working on this deepened the purpose of our project into something more”, Silas recalled.
He has taken on many roles during the Millennium Fellowship - as a Campus Director for his cohort, as a Master of the Ceremony for the Graduation Ceremony, and as a team member of the Right-to-Know H2O. All of the 3 experiences expanded the way he perceives global issues. “While I have always been passionate and emphatic about the need to help care for our world, I have recently realized how the mere act of helping one person can lead to the chain of helping everyone. Further, when we accept that this is a shared world with a common people at the helm, we can make a deeper connection of how this world shares a common future. This common future is one I hope to bring as many people as I can with me through a chain of kindness, empathy, and compassion. Additionally, being on Right-to-Know H2O has given me the knowledge that this can also only happen when we all try to take care of each other.”, he declared.
“For the people reading the story of this team I am proud to be on, I hope that you gain some form of inspiration or hope from us. There are often times our scaled perspective can forget how vast the world truly is when seen through how small we make it. If you want to leave the world better than when you found it, you must be the change.”
Written by: Silas Gonzalez, with a special thank you to Caroline Zanuto-Winter, Lizi Imedashvilli, Dillon Talactac, Graig Decembre, Isaac Lasso-Younes, Kiley Cosgrove, Mamoun Edfouf, Nailah Brown, Noor Huda, Phoenix Ellrodt, Skyler Flynn, Zachary Cherenfant, Professors John Cronin, Leanne Keeley, and to the Millennium Fellows from Häme University of Applied Sciences.
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