My Environmental Enlightenment

In the Bay Area, California, falling in love with the outdoors is almost inevitable. With the Pacific Ocean on one side, and the Sierra Nevada mountains on the other, there's no shortage of nature to explore. All it took was one camping trip, and I was infatuated. Between rock climbing, scuba diving, hiking, skiing, and any other excuse to go outside, my desire to be out and about was insatiable. I soon found myself exploring the world. Over the years, I've spent countless hours oohing and aahing in national parks, leaving bubble trails in some of the world's most pristine reefs, and clinging to rock faces a hundred feet off the ground. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I was fiercely protective of the increasingly sparse natural spaces that had given me so much -- a mindset I carried with me to college. For a long time, I was that girl: I would sort through my roomate's trash bin for recycleable items, only ever ate organic produce, and preached to anyone who would listen about #notrashjuly.

In my second year of college, I took a class that changed my life. I know, I know, it sounds cliché, but hear me out. I signed up for American environmental history, expecting to learn about the establishment of my beloved national parks. While I did get a lecture about Pinchot and Muir schools of thought regarding national parks, it didn't stop there. We discussed lead paint poisoning in Saint Louis, and how interstates selectively demolished minority and poor neighborhoods. We spent hours talking about why the interests of '60s environmentalists were incompatible with those of Civil Rights activists. It was incredible -- I would never again look at environmentalism as anything other than the people-centric movement it is, beneath the thin veil of tree-huggers and nature lovers. I took to journalism as a means of covering issues at the intersection of social justice and environmentalism, like why Indonesians, despite suffering the effects of rising sea levels and worsening storms, are some of the most skeptical of climate change. Or, how deep-sea mining might address child labor and pollution in places like Congo and Russia.

Of course, I'll always be a die-hard composter and you'll catch me refusing takeout containers and whipping out my own tupperwares at restaurants, but the environmentalism I want to pursue goes so much deeper than that. I want to work with people for people, creating solutions that are accessible and work for everyone. That's what true environmentalism is.

The nitty gritty

I attended Northwestern University (conferred June 2019), receiving a Bachelor's of Science in journalism cum laude, and a double major in environmental science with departmental honors. I was the editor and social media manager of In Our Nature, Northwestern's only student-run environmental publication. In winter of 2018, I was photo editor for Northwestern's preeminent student-run lifestyle magazine, North by Northwestern. In addition to these campus publications, I have also been published in Chicago Magazine, as well as in Grist, an online environmental publication where I worked for three months as an editorial intern. You can check out my work here! Otherwise, you can read some of my faves down below, in my portfolio. I also did research at the Chicago Botanic Gardens in the Economic Botany Lab, analyzing the diversity of a new species and culminating in a thesis paper which I am working to publish. I also worked for a summer with Yellow Tractor, a Chicago-based employee wellness startup that is using edible gardens to reconnect city-dwellers to their food.

Catch me on the flip flop!

I'm too busy living in the present to know exactly what I want to do in the future, but a few things are for sure: I'm open to travel, eager to get outdoors, and climbing is a must! If you have great ideas on how to make the Earth a little better for us all, count me in.