For all four years at Pitt, I was involved with the Pitt Green Fund, a student-run allocations board that funds and advises student projects that increase sustainability on campus. After serving as a Project Liaison for two years, I was selected as the Director for my junior and senior years. As director, I removed barriers that prevented students from accessing composting services and began calculating data on avoided carbon emissions and plastic waste. During my term as director, the number of project applications rose 29.2% from the previous year. In January 2019, due to my success on the Green Fund, I was selected as a student representative to the University Sustainability Committee, a campus-wide group composed of members with varied experience levels and backgrounds.

Many of the projects funded by the Green Fund result in positive changes that complement the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. For example, funding the Hydroponics Club supports the club’s mission to provide local food banks with healthy vegetables, and providing funds for reusable menstrual products keeps money in the pockets of female students and reduces landfill waste. It is my hope that in the future, the Green Fund will be able to fund more projects like the ones above that achieve the social, economic, and environmental aspects of sustainability.

For all four years of my undergraduate experience, I sang as a bass member in the Pitt Men’s Glee Club. Founded in 1890, the Glee Club is the oldest nonathletic extracurricular group at the University. My favorite part of being a member was the opportunity to perform in domestic cities such as Chicago, Charleston, Richmond, and international locations like Belgium, where the Glee Club joined with European choirs to commemorate the 100th anniversary of WW1.

During the spring semester of my sophomore year, I volunteered for three hours a week with Just Harvest, a non-profit that seeks to reduce poverty among working class Pennsylvanians. In my role as a tax greeter, I welcomed and informed low-income clients seeking assistance with free tax preparation. What made this experience rewarding was the chance to meet countless working class citizens, a group that often does not have a voice in discussions around policy. One night, a woman who spoke only Spanish arrived for her appointment after the translator had left. Even though my Spanish knowledge was limited at the time, I was able to help her convey the necessary information to the tax preparer. It was experiences like these at Just Harvest that shaped my view that more resources needed to be allocated to help working families thrive.

As a senior at James Madison High School in Virginia, two of my peers and I led an advocacy campaign to push for the adoption of solar energy for our school system. I quickly educated myself on the regulations surrounding solar power purchase agreements and explained them to the community through public forums and an online petition, which was signed by over 500 people. Due to our advocacy, the school board learned of the multiple benefits of pursuing solar energy and in 2019 announced that the county had awarded contracts to install solar systems at 113 county government facilities. I am quoted in this Washington Post article that describes my efforts along with a broader push in the state legislature to loosen restrictions on solar energy.