Sammie Trvalik, Environmental Science Major and Political Science Minor
Sammie is an Environmental Science major with a Political Science minor from Arlington, Massachusetts. On campus, she is the VP of Community Relations for Pi Beta Phi, where she coordinates the organization’s community service, public relations, and diversity and inclusion efforts. She studied abroad in Atenas, Costa Rica with the School for Field Studies. Here, she learned about sustainable development and embarked on an independent research project where she spent a week living in a small rural town, studying the effects of ecotourism and conservation efforts on the livelihoods of small business owners, farmers, townspeople, and local indigenous representatives.
Sammie is an environmental educator for the Massachusetts Audubon Society, teaching grade-schoolers about environmental science, sustainable agriculture, conservation, and the human relationship with the land. She is also a volunteer with Workers Health Without Borders, researching the epidemiology of heat-related illness on migrant farmworkers and prison-laborers in the US in efforts to advocate for the national implementation of strong occupational environmental health policy.
With a strong love for the arts, she has organized several social justice projects outside of the college through artistic storytelling and empowerment. She hopes to pursue a career path in NGO work combining her creative and scientific background. She is looking forward to collaborating with the rest of the talented Baird fellows.