My passion for sustainability and earth sciences was not a linear progression leading up to University. While growing up and enjoying the outdoors through camping and road trips, I implicitly avoided exploring the environmental sciences among my interests in STEM. When looking towards college, I was eager for a challenging education but avoidant of an onerous career. And the world of sustainability seemed riddled with problems I didn’t have the answers to, problems best left for someone else to solve. This mindset soon changed, however, when I began exploring classes in the environmental sciences track for the technical writing major and spent my free time volunteering on habitat restoration along the Mississippi. Working directly with community members on preserving and revitalizing the great outdoors fostered a sense of purpose I hadn’t felt in my high school and early college pursuits in physics and aerospace. Beyond my growing fascination with the earth sciences and the technical writing involved in environmental engineering, I was drawn to the field for its ability to bring together people across sectors and specializations with an unwavering passion for their careers and the communities they serve.

In light of not avoiding the great challenges ahead of sustainable development, the transition to clean and renewable energy is a great place to start (go big or go home). From a technical writing perspective, this transition is riddled with wicked problems, problems so deeply intertwined with societal structures that solving one often reveals more. The path to net-zero emissions requires efforts across communities, nonprofit organizations, legal institutions, government agencies, and businesses. The latter is a particularly key market in facilitating the transition, with questions surrounding profitability and incentives being one of the most prominent hurdles for project ideation. Along with the need for quality technical writing for clean energy projects in a changing federal and state regulatory landscape, the field requires (and has begun to make) major strides in reframing public rhetoric around the energy transition. With the growth of renewables and the increasing demand for more power, it is crucial to include home and business owners in the clean energy conversation, integrating them into the language of the grid.

The energy sector transition cannot be a passive endeavor but a diligent and assertive pursuit. From this, I am reminded of a quote in “The Anthropocene Reviewed” by John Green, where he offers that “in the Anthropocene, there are no disinterested observers; there are only participants.” Our collective society is at a crucial turning point in our current epoch, and the transition to clean energy is a critical step in our forward trajectory.

Despite specializing my studies in environmental science, my introduction to clean energy in college was sparked by my work with Fresh Energy and the Institute on the Environment during the 2024-2025 academic year. Collaborating with a team of students, we worked with Fresh to track the status of millions of dollars contracted and projected for clean energy projects, as well as the impacts of grant and funding freezes on government agencies, businesses, and nonprofits. This experience was particularly eye-opening due to the attitude of many leaders in the industry. At the time, many clean energy leaders maintained a firm, positive outlook on the industry, having experienced decades of trials and tribulations leading up to today. This was a powerful reminder that despite the impacts of large short-term decisions on the industry, it has always been a long-term effort.

Additionally, not exclusive to energy, my work on the climate grant committee at the Carolyn Foundation in the spring of 2025 impacted my knowledge of sustainability nonprofit work in Minnesota. Reading through the variety of organizations working towards obtaining net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 demonstrated the breadth of Minnesota’s energy efforts and the simultaneous interconnectedness.

All of these experiences led me to CEEM, where I am excited to enhance my scope of the clean energy industry and aid them in the amazing work they do!