Resume (PDF)

I am graduating from Brandeis University in July, and I majored in International and Global Studies with a concentration in Global Environmental Issues. I spent the fall of my junior year, 2005, in Kunming, China on a program with the School for International Training. As part of the program, I spent a month doing an independent research project; I wrote a paper titled “Saving Shangrila: Balancing Environmental Protection with Economic Growth in China,” about the environmental and societal effects of a dam project that the Chinese government was planning for the Jisha Upper Yangtze River in the Hutiaoxia Tiger Leaping Gorge area. I extrapolated from this dam project proposal to discuss China’s broader environmental policies.

I continued to pursue this interest when I came back to Brandeis in the spring of 2006 in a class called Conservation Biology. In this class, I was able to learn about the biodiversity that would be flooded by the dam project in Tiger Leaping Gorge, and why the biodiversity there is important. It was put into a broader context, and this made the project more important to me. These two experiences together have set the foundation for all of my subsequent studies. The vantage point from which I now look at my studies at Brandeis University is largely influenced by these experiences.

In high school I was the editor in chief of the school’s newspaper, worked for college papers, and I have always enjoyed writing and reporting. I am looking forward to writing for our film because it is through writing that I have the potential to effect what is important to me. College students study abroad at an integral part in their college careers; there was a lot that was determined for me in my time abroad, and I carried as much of those sentiments as I could with me when I came back to Brandeis. At this point the next step for me is to go to China to try to affect change. The best way for me to affect change in China is by bolstering international awareness. One of the ways to do that is to expose China’s environmental policy to international constructive criticism and work towards greater transparency. Greater transparency will increase global awareness and pressure will therefore be put on the government of China to put a higher value on the environment. Changes made at the administration level have the potential to trickle-down and affect the attitudes of the Chinese citizens. These are the attitudes that I am most interested in affecting, but the best way to affect individual Chinese people is beyond the realm of this project. I have the ability to influence international opinion to some extent—at least change the minds of the people who I can reach with the film we make—and all I can do is try to work within this realm of factors that I have the ability to affect. We can increase our scope by making a film and showing it at environmental film festivals in the United States.