Education

Humanities, Sustainability Studies

How has your education and experience at UT helped you in your career or your personal life?

 ““I am currently a policy analyst with the Urban Institute's Research to Action Lab. So the Urban Institute is a huge policy research center, and the Research to Action Lab is focused on translating research into more tangible and accessible policy materials and doing things like technical assistance consulting with local governments and community based organizations, and just working to make research actually useful. And so that was something that I felt like I was really primed for through the work I did at UT. And I feel like, at least in the Sustainability Studies Department, a lot of the classes were really practitioner-geared, which was really useful for me. I really love and enjoy the more academic side of things, but needed that practical side to feel grounded as well. And being able to blend those two things – it's just aided me a lot in my career.”

What advice would you give to current and future UT students?

“I wish someone had told me to focus when I was thinking about what I wanted to do post grad or the kinds of internships I wanted to do. I just wish someone had told me to think more about the kinds of tasks I wanted to do or how I wanted my life to look and what I wanted my workday to look like. Because I just found opportunities to really tie in a lot of different interests, but what's been honestly the hardest thing is crafting a workday and a workstyle, finding an organization where I'm doing work that fits with how my brain naturally works or fits with how I want my day to look or my work-life balance to look. And I feel like there was such pressure on really narrowing in on the topic and really having that be what was guiding you towards a career but I've really found that doing the inverse [is helpful].”