students

leviton ’25 explores how educators define a sustainable future

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Every year, the Bailey COE awards fellowships to fund summer (and spring and fall) research opportunities for Wesleyan undergrads across all majors and class years. Most recently, the Bailey COE awarded almost 40 fellowships to Wes students, including Isadora Goldman Leviton ’25, an education and American studies major, who spent the summer conducting qualitative research interviews in the Greater Hartford area, regarding how educators define a sustainable future for themselves and their students. 

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envs course inspires guillemin ’27 to obtain wildfire cert

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This past June, E&ES major Finn Guillemin ‘27 participated in an incredible hands-on learning experience through the YMCA of the Pines in Western New Jersey: getting his wildfire firefighter certification.

Finn’s decision to pursue certification was heavily influenced by a course he took in spring 2024: Fire Ecology and Management/ENVS329, taught by Professor Helen Poulos. The course focuses on fire as a fundamental ecological disturbance process that shapes plant communities globally. In the course, students explore how climate change and human land use have altered fire behavior, disrupting many species. The course also examines shifting fire regimes over time, from indigenous fire practices to contemporary fire management. The mix of in-class lectures, field exercises, and discussions fueled Finn’s curiosity and desire for hands-on experience. 

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congrats to our envs class of 2024!

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A huge congratulations to our unstoppable class of 2024, formerly the class of 2020, aka, the covid class, for making it through…and finishing with flying colors!! Bella Barocas, Mira Begg, Dylan Campos, Ishani Dave, Ella Doherty, Sloane Dzhitenov, Lia Franklin, Madeline Frew, Danielle Garten, Andie Glanzer, Debbra Goh, Madisyn Gomez, Marangela James, Sachita Jariwala, Joshua Kleiman, Kiran Kling, Paul Kraut, Jasmine Lam, Amara Leazer, Serena Levingston, Alberto Lopez, Jessica Luu, Cam McCrystal, Maggie Monaghan, Nerdvens Moreau, Amanda Morris, Meera Nemali, Advait Prasad, Lea Schaffer, Amy Smith, Cole Torino and Katie Yin. Watch the video below to meet our entire class of 2024 — and click on the links in this paragraph, to read more about so many of those amazing new alums!

meet our bailey coe 2024 summer fellows!

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Every year, the Bailey COE awards fellowships to fund summer (and spring and fall) research opportunities for Wesleyan students across all majors and class years. Most recently, the Bailey COE awarded almost 40 fellowships to Wes students. Learn a little bit more about each, below! Applications for summer 2025, fall 2025 and spring 2026 Bailey COE fellowships are open now! Apply by February 24!

Ava Guralnick ‘25 plans to use personal storytelling narratives to combine the perspectives of Asian American Studies and Environmental Studies. She will examine the ways in which various spatial and temporal geographies of land can provide new ways to understand and locate the interwoven histories of imperial conflict, connection, and new kinship/family making processes.

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senior spotlight: kiran kling ’24

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How did you first become interested in the environment?
I started thinking and asking and learning about different ways to deal with climate change when I was really young. I used to have a plan to build an electric car company, and I would drag my parents to conferences on renewable energy. I was very concerned that there was this problem, and nobody was paying attention, and felt like somebody had to do something about it. I thought that I would try and play as much of a role as I could. When I finally had the freedom to study climate solutions in college I jumped at the chance.

What led you to choose your majors, environmental studies and government? 
When I got to Wesleyan I decided that I really loved the environmental studies major, and I didn’t want to be boxed into taking the entire earth and environmental science curriculum, particularly online during covid. I liked the variety within the environmental studies major, and I really liked learning about policy, which led me to pursue the government major as well. I chose Wesleyan in large part because of our open curriculum and academic flexibility. I’ve been lucky to take fantastic IDEAS, biology, E&ES, and religion classes alongside my major coursework.

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senior spotlight: lea schaffer ’24

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What majors or minors did you combine with environmental studies?
I’m a biology and environmental studies major.

Why did you decide to become an environmental studies major?
I actually transferred to Wesleyan University for my junior year. Part of what interested me in transferring is that I was coming from a school that was just doing hard sciences and biology. I wanted to get a better understanding of its applications in the world, and I thought the environmental studies program was a very good way for me to see, especially in terms of sustainability, the impacts and the larger picture. 

Can you tell me about your senior project?
I’m doing an essay that has to do with wastewater management and climate change. So, what is wastewater management? How does it function? And what are the problems with it? And how does climate change exacerbate it?

Why did you choose that topic?We have these family friends that my dad has worked with that has this really cool company called Clean Two that does septic tanks that have a process to denitrify the waste. So I learned all about why it was needed. It was placed near Cape Cod in Massachusetts, where they have a huge nitrogen problem in the water and all of it comes from wastewater. It’s kind of a solution to that. That got me interested in wastewater in general, and kind of understanding how climate change makes things more important in that matter.

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senior spotlight: amara leazer ’24

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What are your combined majors/minors?
My primary major is a university major for environmental and ecological design and engineering. It’s linked with environmental studies and I have a minor in IDEAS. 

Can you tell me about your university major? How you created it, what drew you to it, and what it consists of?
I was originally in earth and environmental science. I liked it but some of the requirements were just not going to be helpful for what I wanted to do, and I wouldn’t be able to take other classes that would be more helpful. IDEAS wasn’t a major yet—now, it’s the College of Design and Engineering Studies. So, there was no major that let you build stuff, and I wanted to build stuff. That’s why I made the university major. It’s been super fun and I haven’t had to take too many classes that I don’t want to, so I recommend it.

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