Hello! My name is Violet Andrews, and I am thrilled to be joining the Natural Resource Conservation Academy for the summer of 2025. I am a Senior pursuing a dual degree in Earth Science Education and Earth Science. I am motivated through my love for nature, the outdoors, and providing everyone with an education focused on the environment.
Growing up, I have always felt a strong connection to the outdoors. From exploring the woods and stream behind my childhood home or traveling with my family in our Volkswagen Bus jumping from campground to campground. Through my time in college my connection to nature has only grown. Also, through my education, I have seen the unfair educational disparities placed on communities. The educational gap was so obvious yet going unnoticed by policy makers. This same pattern occurs in situations involving the environment. As I learned more, I saw many environmental burdens placed on the same communities affected most by education inequities.
I have now begun focusing on learning more about the disparities that are the results of policies, practices, and history that must be challenged and changed. I wanted to become an Environmental Justice Education Intern, not only to expand my teaching on the outdoors, but also to learn ways I can use science, communication, and community work to shine a light on environmental issues that often go unnoticed.
Winter 2025, I traveled to Taiwan to study geology. During my time there I focused on creating lesson plans that I could bring back into my classrooms to provide my students with a global perspective. While studying there, I learned about the inequities in education that students also faced. I discussed the ways in which they combat this and expanded my learning with the goal of bringing my knowledge back into my future classrooms. Spending most of my time there outside, I continued to dream of becoming an outdoor educator.
This Environmental Justice Education internship with NRCA is going to be my first opportunity to really experience this. I’ll be supporting PhD student Shanelle Thevarajah in developing a water justice curriculum, engaging with Upward Bound students, and deepening my understanding of environmental justice.
When I am not in the classroom, you will likely find me traveling. Where I am hiking, camping, or reading a book. When I am home, I often go to as many concerts that can fit in with my schedule as possible. Or hanging with my two cats.
Hi! My name is Parker, and I’m a junior at UCONN. I am passionate about community building, student support, and creating engaging activities. I love working with students in a variety of contexts such as mentoring, event coordination, and one-on-one conversations.
Hello! My name is Bran Sullivan, and I’m an Eco-Digital Storyteller Mentor for the 2024-2025 NRCA program. I’m currently a senior at UConn with a major in Digital Media & Design. During my Environmental Storytelling class, working with high school students and helping them express their project ideas as actionable steps, and demonstrating how we achieved this with our own projects, was a very rewarding and fulfilling experience from my time at this university. I worked as a gymnastics and parkour instructor throughout late high school and early college, and seeing kids grow and accomplish their goals has always resonated with me.
I joined the EDS program because I have a passion and interest in the environment and wildlife, as well as helping to mentor people. My mom is a dog trainer, so I’ve always been around and had an appreciation for animals, and going on walks in the woods with our pups is a formative childhood memory for me. Overall, I am very appreciative of my time at UConn and this position, and I hope to use the lessons learned here in my future after graduation!
Hello! My name is Gabriela and I am one of the 
