- UNC's MCRP: Masters of City and Regional Planning
- MEM Management Concentration: Environmental Analytics and Modeling (EAM)
- MEM Environment Concentration: Energy and Environment (EE)
- Expected Graduation Date: May 2027
What factors were most important in your decision to choose the Nicholas School for your graduate studies? And, how will your time at the Nicholas School help you reach your career aspirations?
When I made the decision to pursue graduate school, I was both eager to establish myself as an emerging expert as well as excited to enter an active and passionate community. I was already long aware of the caliber of Nicholas School students and alumni given my previous role on the Climate Corps team at the Environmental Defense Fund, where I witnessed many Nicholas students excel with aplomb when tasked with challenging projects. This is in addition to the faculty and staff who bring unparalleled wisdom and insight to thoughtfully designed classes. The applied nature of the programming offered clear assurance that I would graduate with a whole new set of tools with which I could contribute to changing the world.
So, come March of 2024, I was first overjoyed to be accepted to the Nicholas School, and secondly astonished to be selected by the program as a Nicholas Scholar. It is entirely due to the generosity of the recognition that I am able to pursue a joint degree with the UNC Chapel Hill Master of City & Regional Planning, thus equipping me with the skills and knowledge needed to bring climate solutions to the municipal and regional scales. This is a unique and mighty joint degree offering I did not see anywhere else. With these curricula side-by-side, I'm identifying the complex relationships between land use planning paradigms and grid infrastructure planning challenges. With rigorous coursework in GIS and modeling at the Nicholas School and strong policy analysis skills from UNC Chapel Hill, I look forward to contributing to solving the most pressing challenges facing our energy and climate systems.