I Am Knox

Vitals

Hometown: Carbondale, Illinois
Majors: Biology/Environmental Studies
Campus Involvements: McNair scholar, Eco House manager, Student representative for Sustainability Task Force, KARES, Garden Club

Three Facts about Jessica

1. Jessica has completed summer internships at Shawnee National Forest in Illinois and at Yosemite National Park in California.

2. She is active in Growing Together, an agriculture center in the Galesburg community that focuses on sustainable growing methods.

3. As one of Knox's sustainability interns, Jessica is working to bring a honeybee hive to campus to give students experience with beekeeping.

Who are your favorite Knox professors?
Peter Schwartzman, Stuart Allison, and Mary Crawford. (Before taking Introduction to Environmental Studies with Peter Schwartzman,) I'd already heard a lot of stories about how passionate he was about teaching and how much he really believed in what he was doing. Stuart is pretty much a representation of everything I'm interested in. Mary Crawford has this way of seeing something in someone and then pushing it so you go farther than you could possibly go. She's a great role model.

You are participating in the 2014 Green Oaks Term. Why did this course appeal to you?
Green Oaks is an opportunity for me to get back outside and reconnect. The opportunity to get to do that with other people who want that same experience is what makes it even more powerful -- that there are 12 other people who are just as willing to dedicate themselves to understanding an ecosystem and learning in that ecosystem. That's what I want: community and education and nature, all wrapped up in one.

What would you like to do after Knox?
My career goal is to just be outside. I want to frolic in the woods. You can have me do anything, but as long as I can learn and be outside, I will be a happy camper. This could involve a lot of different things. It could involve working for a national park as a researcher or as an ecologist. I want to make sure my career reflects my beliefs in life.