Environmental Justice: Emily Blanchard '10
For many college students, choosing a major is one of the most tentative, brooded-over steps of the undergraduate experience. For Emily Blanchard, there was no hesitation. Choosing her major in environmental policy was a confident, impassioned decision.
Emily's interest in the field is longstanding, inspired by what she saw and experienced while growing up in Cleveland. From childhood on, she recognized that impoverished areas of her city were plagued by environmental problems that left affluent neighborhoods relatively untouched.
"The steel mills and coal plants were in lower-income communities, where air and water pollution caused high rates of asthma and other environmentally related diseases," she says. She adds that though the steel mills are gone now, their toxic legacy remains, while coal production is still "in full bloom."
Since coming to Barnard, Emily has taken advantage of a wide range of academic and extracurricular opportunities to fortify her grounding in environmental science and policy and actively pursue the goal of environmental justice. This summer she is in Washington, D.C., interning at Earthjustice, a public-interest law firm that strengthens the wording and enforcement of environmental laws by representing citizens' groups and scientists in court and on Capitol Hill. Her current sojourn in Washington follows a shorter visit during winter break for the annual Women & Science/Technology Seminar sponsored by the Public Leadership Education Network, a national organization that prepares young women for prominent roles in civic life and introduces them to women already employed at the highest levels of policy-making institutions.
During the 2007-08 academic year, Emily worked for Professor Jeffrey Sachs, world-renowned director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, assisting in his efforts to promote sustainable development on a global level. The previous May, while completing her second college semester, she worked at the United Nations as a delegate to the Sixteenth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development.
Emily will spend the spring 2009 semester studying wildlife management at The School for Field Studies in Kenya. She is also focused on local green priorities, and hopes to contribute to the protection, health, and well-being of New Yorkers by interning at West Harlem Environmental Action—an organization that educates, mobilizes, and advocates for the residents of northern Manhattan.
Emily's future plans include law school, preceded by a graduate program in natural-resource conservation. Meanwhile, thrilled by the range of courses available on the Barnard and Columbia campuses, she is fulfilling her love and aptitude for foreign languages by maintaining her fluency in French, studying Portuguese, and preparing to learn Arabic. Beyond the campus gates she is much in demand as a Barnard Babysitter and as a volunteer dog-walker for the Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition. While walking rescued dogs, strolling with friends, or exploring New York on her own, she's often in a Barnard "hoodie" that elicits greetings from alumnae of all ages.
The diversity and accomplishment of Barnard women—especially her classmates—is a steady source of joy for Emily. "Every friend I've made here is amazing," she says. "They're all passionate about something, all pursuing wonderful interests in their own ways."
—Anne Schutzberger
Emily was the proud recipient of scholarship support from the Anne Victoria and Elizabeth Jane Shutkin Fund during the 2007-08 academic year.
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