Blog Posts 2023

Pheej Lauj is a rising second year student and a Mellon Community Engagement Fellow. He has partnered with OCA Asian Pacific Islander American Advocates Utah, the Utah chapter of a national Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander advocacy organization, for his fellowship. In this role, he aims to fill gaps and serve as a liaison between the Asian and Pacific Islander (API+) community and the local environmental movement. He has been busy planning the upcoming Utah Asian Festival happening June 3, and he recently received a SCIF grant to support the incorporation of recycling and waste reduction education into his work with the API community.

Ten of our students successfully defended their master's projects and theses, and we celebrated their accomplishments at graduation on May 5. The Class of 2023 was full of bright, creative students with diverse interests. Research ranged from queer ecology on Fire Island, New York to lithium mining at Thacker Pass in Nevada. Students collaborated with Tribes such as the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation and spent deep time in politically charged landscapes such as the U.S.-Mexico border. We were inspired and impressed by their research and look forward to seeing what they do next!

Maggie Scholle is a rising second year student. She was a GCSC Fellow and also was part of the Spring '23 STEM Ambassador Program (STEMAP) at the U of U, learning tools for public engagement in the sciences. Even though Maggie's undergraduate background was in the natural sciences, she brought a unique perspective to the cohort as the only humanities graduate student. For her public engagement project, she created two activities with the Magna Library for children around place attachment. She also led two workshops with the STEM Community Alliance Program (STEMCAP) for youth-in-custody.

Sydney Murray is a rising second year student interested in outdoor education, especially for youth of color. She has worked as a Field Instructor with the Wasatch Mountain Institute (WMI) for the past academic year and is developing an outdoor education program with WMI, Outdoor Afro, and CurlyMe! for Black girls in Utah.

Tessa has worked in the field of environmental education with organizations such as Summit Land Conservancy and Conserve Utah Valley to help spread awareness and appreciation for the natural world. Tessa’s research in the Environmental Humanities focuses on environmental education as a method of fostering resiliency and connection in the face of climate change. Tessa’s thesis work combines accessible, digital education and experiential learning methods to encourage emotional resiliency and place-based sensory connection as a way to understand and confront eco-anxiety and climate grief.