Since completing her two-year fellowship with the Environmental Law Institute, Sarah Backer’22 (government/Chinese) has joined The Good Food Institute as a policy associate supporting the alternative protein sector through policy research and analysis, materials development, and direct outreach to decision makers.
Hello Sarah! Would you share where you are from, and what you studied during your time Wesleyan?
I’m from New York City originally, and I decided to go to Wesleyan because I liked that all of the students seemed to be really passionate about what they were studying. The students were ambitious and intellectual, but not overly competitive or cutthroat. People were able to pursue a variety of interests. I majored in government, and I took a lot of environmental studies classes and was a College of East Asian studies minor. I also received a writing certificate. I knew that I wanted my work to eventually be climate-related and decided that college would be a good opportunity to take classes in a variety of areas.
How did your courses at Wesleyan translate into skills that you have found to be valuable in the workplace? Did your courses influence your perspective on climate change?
I think that my minor in East Asian studies really made me more diligent. Learning how to write Mandarin characters was a very intensive process, and I had to pay incredible attention to detail. I think those skills really translated to the workplace after Wesleyan. Although at first my writing certificate was just for my own enjoyment, I think it also made me a better writer, which is a valuable skill, post-college.
I also took classes at Wesleyan that really helped influence how I now think about sustainability and climate. I took a class with Professor Brian Stewart, which was a seminar in public writing called Radical Sustainability. We would read technical pieces or policy documents and examine if they had a realistic approach to addressing the climate crisis. We would ask: What are the challenges to implementing some of these recommendations? Do they go far enough? Do they not go far enough? Professor Stewart helped me think about how important writing and communications are in terms of reaching people to inform them about the environment and climate change and how to make a persuasive argument. He helped me think outside of the box. I came from a traditional government major perspective where I was thinking about what the most pragmatic thing to do would be. Professor Stewart led me to consider different perspectives– and used the metaphor from a book called the Wizard and the Prophet, by Charles C. Mann. The wizard’s perspective is that we can use technology to repair society’s ills and the prophets are people who say we have to make fundamental changes to our behavior. Professor Stewart made me consider the perspective of the prophet: that we need to radically alter our values as a society.
What was your experience like working as a communications and policy intern at the EPA? How did you find this internship?
I cold emailed around 40 people at the EPA! I was set on doing an internship with the EPA, but the formal processes were nearly impossible to navigate as an undergraduate. Instead, I just directly asked people if they had any openings, and I was able to reach someone involved with the EPA’s Green Power Partnership, who gave me the role. The internship was unpaid, so I funded it with a Wesleyan summer grant. I really enjoyed my experience! It was a very bureaucratic environment, because I was working for a federal government agency. It felt good to contribute to the Green Power Partnership program, which is a resource for businesses to increase their supply of green power. Through the internship I realized that working for the EPA was not the way that I wanted to make change, because I felt that the processes were very slow. However, I do believe that the EPA is a really important resource, and it provides great information about the climate crisis and obviously has a very large reach.
Would you share a bit about your current role as a research associate at the Environmental Law Institute?
The position I’m in is a two-year fellowship. What I really liked about it was that it was really geared towards nurturing people who are right out of college in their first jobs and providing them with a lot of support to go into their next jobs or graduate school. We’re assigned to different projects that are led by attorneys. We do a mix of research and administrative work for them. My projects span from work on food waste to municipal climate action planning to international environmental compliance and enforcement. I’ve recently been on a project that’s all about hosting a three-day long workshop for EPA state water quality managers. There’s a huge range of topics, and l’ve been exposed to a lot of different issues! There’s a lot of policy research and drafting of different model ordinances and policies, rather than litigation.
Are there any specific subject areas that you are especially interested in?
I’m really interested in urban food systems and agriculture. I’m also interested in how we can better manage waste. I’m still pretty early on in my career, and I’d like to continue to be a generalist. There are so many climate and environmental issues that need to be addressed that I’m happy to work on a wide range of issues.
For students about to enter the workforce, I would tell them that being exposed to a wide range of topics and careers helps to inform what you may want to do in the future or what you may not want to do. Learning that you don’t want to do something isn’t a wasted experience. It’s still really valuable.
Do you have any advice for students considering how to begin their careers
Use the Gordon Career Center! They showed me how to properly use LinkedIn to utilize the Wesleyan alumni network to see which Wes alums work in the environment. That’s how I found my current job: I saw a Wes alum at the Environmental Law Institute and noticed they were hiring. Connect with alumni, and make sure you speak to your professors about any opportunities they may know of! Apply broadly because you don’t know which job will speak down the line. You can also do informational calls and ask people about their jobs. Especially if you both went to Wesleyan, they’ll have more of a desire to speak to you because you have that shared college connection. When you are building professional relationships, don’t minimize your experiences! For example, when I was at Wesleyan, I was the house manager for Earth House, which I loved. I had to organize and host events, and initially I dismissed this experience. However, as I started applying to jobs, I realized that through this role I was engaging in community organizing and climate advocacy. I was also the president of the Wesleyan Jewish Community and gained so much experience managing that student group. Consider your experiences on campus, and do not diminish the value of building these interpersonal skills. They are extremely important for everything you do after graduating from Wesleyan!