DIGITAL MEDIA & ADVENTURES

About Me: 

 Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the oldest of four with three brothers I spent the majority of my childhood outdoors, sporting skinned knees and elbows and more bug bites than I could count. I have always been an adventurer, and was lucky to have a family with a similar passion. Before I was even in high school we hiked and camped as a family throughout the lower 48, Alaska, Ireland, Peru and the Galapagos Islands. In high school we traveled as a family to Tanzania, and I started traveling on my own spending a summer teaching English in Costa Rica with a friend and a month backpacking in the Swiss Alps completing the Haute Route from Chamonix, France to Zermatt, Switzerland.

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All of these experiences have brought me to where I am right now. I am a rising senior at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina persuing a bachelors of science in Environmental Studies and expecting to graduate in May 2015. My studies support my passion for the outdoors and protecting and conserving wilderness. Beyond my studies at Davidson, I am the president of Davidson Outdoors, one of the largest clubs on campus that specializes in providing group experiences in the outdoors, offering backpacking, climbing, whitewater kayaking and canoeing, mountain biking and caving trips almost every weekend of the semester. The club also brings together a community of similarly passionate adventure lovers, providing gear and training to continue to do what we love and invaluable leadership skills. I am also a member of the Board of Directors and the Land Initiatives committee for the Davidson Lands Conservancy. My involvement with the DLC allows me to take part in protecting and conserving the greater Davidson area and learn more about how land conservation and non-profits work.  Davidson has provided me with amazing opportunitites to be a leader, to learn about the environment and appreciate many different points of view, and to think critically and solve problems.

Last fall I was fortunate to have the opportunity to study abroad for 5 months in Northeastern Thailand. My coursework was focused on development and globalization. I learned basic Thai, and spent the semester living in different villages across the northeast region. I studied a variety of issues including agriculture, land rights, water rights and dams, natural resources and mining, and Buddhism as a form of social activism. I learned from and lived with the people who were affected by the issues I was studying, and as a result  I became deeply passionate about alternative education, journalism, and sharing untold stories. My final project in Thailand (featured under Videos) was a video for Huay Rahong, a community struggling to protect their rights to land they have lived on for 100 years. This was a project that the community had asked our student group to put together for them so that they could share their story with other communities that face similar challenges. 

This all brings us to where I am today, passionate about the environment, the beauty and power of nature, alternative education, and sharing untold stories. This summer I have a grant from Davidson´s Dean Rusk International Studies Program and a summer fellowship with The Pulitzer Center, a non-profit that focuses on reporting unreported and under reported stories. My project takes me to Patagonia, the southern regions of Chile and Argentina, to report for the Pulitzer Center on the potential construction of 5 hydrodams and thousands of miles of electrical transmission lines to provide power to Santiago, the capital of Chile. I´ll let you know more as I spend 5 weeks in Patagonia conducting interviews and learning about the issue. Keep checking back!