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The Ted Scripps Fellowships have been bringing award-winning environmental journalists to Â鶹ÊÓƵ for 29 years. Fellows embark on a year of courses, projects, field trips, seminars and more— taking advantage of everything university life has to offer. This series is a chance to get to know this year’s cohort of talented journalists beyond what a typical bio page will tell you.

Can you talk a little bit about your Scripps project and how it has changed or developed over the fellowship?

The project I came in with was intergenerational stories of environmental change. So the kind of long view that I think a lot of people and communities have of how their areas, the places that they love, are changing, and then connecting the science to that. And I've done some of that, but most of my time I've actually spent looking more at a completely different topic that I stumbled upon after getting here. In a landscape architecture class that I was taking last semester, we looked at how landscapers can plan gardens and yards to be more climate resilient, which included a lot of talk about native plants. That got me thinking about how we as a society have changed our thinking about native versus invasive versus non-native species. So I’ve also been looking into species that aren’t native but may be better suited to the reality of a warmer future.

I've also met with so many people and my classes are all really interesting in different ways. And because we're so unrestricted in what classes we're taking, I've been able to explore my interests.

Do you have a favorite class that you've taken during the fellowship?

I think my favorite class right now is a class called Weaving Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Western Science, with Sisi Duchicela. It's a PhD-level class, really for Western science researchers to look at how they are or are not using, respecting, and acknowledging Indigenous ways of knowing. It’s an eight person class and it's been really interesting to hear all of their perspectives. But also I think it's applicable in journalism too, because we could really benefit from learning how to acknowledge ways of knowing that challenge worldviews, and keep more of an open mind.

How has your Scripps cohort impacted your experience as a fellow?

I think all of us get along really well and we also all bring different things to the table with different worldviews and expertise. And I think that that is something that you don't get in a general newsroom that you work in. I was at an NPR show, so everyone I worked with was a radio journalist. It's been really nice to have writers, one other podcaster, and a TV meteorologist, who I just wouldn't ever have worked so closely with in any other setting. And then this cohort in particular, I think we're all just really good friends. We've really gotten to know each other well and we spend a lot of time together.

The fellows often talk about some extra time they have on their hands. How are you using this newfound spare time? 

I am the parent of a two-year-old, so I don't have spare time in the same way, but I'm really just spending it with her. Her vocabulary right now is exploding and it's been so great to see and have little mini conversations with her. 

We're hitting the place I was most excited for when becoming a parent, when she can really explore the world that I'm super familiar with but she's exploring it for the first time. We'll just go on an everyday walk around the neighborhood and she'll pick up this rock and it's like it’s the coolest rock she's ever seen in her life. And I think that as adults, we just pass those by all the time. Because of the extra free time and the no daily deadlines, I get to see her grow and have her teach me more about how to stop and appreciate the world around us. 

What advice would you have for incoming fellows?

I think just really accept the gift that the fellowship is of time and resources that are pretty unrestricted. As much as you can, let go of the stress of day-to-day journalism life. Take the classes you want to take and learn what you want to learn. I've had so many little story ideas bubble up that I don't know that I ever would have thought about if I hadn't been consciously trying to slow down.

I’ve been truly just learning for my own enjoyment and curiosity and I think that has prompted quite a few story ideas that I hope to pursue or am already working on.