I’ve loved animals and being outside for as long as I can remember. When I was little, that mostly meant exploring, paying attention, and getting very upset when something didn’t feel fair. That strong sense of justice stuck with me—it just got more complicated as I got older.

Now I’m studying environmental studies, and I’m especially interested in how environmental decisions are made and who they affect. I’m still figuring out where I want to land—policy, law, or something related—but I know I want to understand those systems before choosing a direction. I don’t love the idea of making big decisions about the world without really knowing how they work on the ground.

I’m also a writer. I was part of a creative writing program at an arts-focused public high school, and writing has always been one of the ways I make sense of things. For me, writing and environmental thinking go together—they’re both about noticing patterns, asking better questions, and trying to understand complexity instead of ignoring it.

This expedition feels like a natural extension of all of that. It’s a chance to be outdoors, work closely with other people, and see environmental challenges as real, lived systems—not just ideas on a page. More than anything, it’s an opportunity to learn by doing and get clearer about what kind of work I want to do next.