A Sustainability Mindset with Breanna

Transcript

Okay, you are gonna love this next student’s story. Let’s go meet up with Breanna. She’s a sophomore studying sustainability and urban planning, and she’s gonna talk us through what sustainability here at ASU is all about. And it’s incredible what you all are doing here to save this precious planet. Breanna, The floor is all yours.

Hi, Alex. Thank you. So, my ASU experience was a little bit of a happy coincidence. I’m originally from the DC area and I was visiting Phoenix to tour with some cousins. And my mom told me I had to tour ASU because I had to see what a big West Coast school was like. I wasn’t expecting anything of it. I wasn’t even really planning on applying. But after touring ASU and Barrett, I loved it.

The Campus was gorgeous, everyone seemed so nice. And after that, ASU was always kind of in the back of my mind. And then midway through the application process, I found out about sustainability and I gave it a Google and ASU was the first school that popped up. Little did I know, I was already admitted to the university with the best sustainability school in the country. So I toured about 12 other universities and I don’t think a single one of them had such a sustainable focus. I don’t think sustainability is in the vocabulary of a lot of other universities. Here, sustainability is such a common word and we are already carbon neutral. We actually plan to be climate positive by 2035, which is insane for a university of this size.

Even though the School of Sustainability is small, it was so enticing to me because the program is so developed. We were actually the first school of sustainability in the country, and we have so many opportunities here. We have an advisor just helping us get internships and we almost have more internships than we do students. It’s amazing. And we’re embedded in a tier one research institution in one of the largest metropolitan areas of the country. Sustainability is super important and exciting to me because it’s a growing field and it’s literally our future.

I’m excited to be a part of that change and everything I’m doing makes me happy because I know that my major is meaningful and I will actually have a real impact on other people in a positive way. So thank you for letting me share my story and my passion. Back to you, Alex.

Breanna, that was awesome. Your passion for sustainability is palpable. And what ASU is tangibly doing to make a positive impact is incredible. Thank you for taking the time to speak on that. Bye, Breanna.