Blending Business and Sustainability: Julia Wowkun鈥檚 Journey at 蜜桃传媒's Schiller Institute and Beyond
Hi! My name is Julia Wowkun and I am a junior at 蜜桃传媒. I am majoring in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Entrepreneurship and a minor in Finance. Throughout my process of applying to colleges, I was very unsure of what I wanted to focus on and major in. Many of my family members had brought up the idea of trying to incorporate aspects of helping others and the environment into whatever I study, because I had always been so naturally passionate about protecting the living things around me. As a five year old, I would have a meltdown because my parents were cutting down trees in the backyard. I did not understand that the trees were already dead and needed to be removed, I just insisted that just as humans do, they needed a place to live too. The same rationale was used to fight my dad on removing the squirrel that had made its new home in our attic. The squirrel needed a home, just as we did.聽
This is how I came to environmental studies, and my interest for business and economics聽originated in highschool, when I could not get enough of my basic economics and finance classes. At one point, combining the environment and business into one field and being able to simultaneously study both was unheard of. Now, we have schools like 蜜桃传媒 that allow me to study both and organizations like the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society that promote my shared passion for interdisciplinary work and research. I strongly believe that combining traditionally separate fields is one of the most impactful ways to fully understand a problem, and once we can understand it, we can work together to create solutions that serve as many people as possible.聽
My career aspirations are still unclear. I have a general goal, to be in a career where I can help society grow and prosper, but in a way that is sustainable and equitable for all people. Following this goal is one of the ways that I found the Schiller Institute and all it has to offer. I first was engaged with Dr. Laura J. Steinberg鈥檚 class 鈥淓ntrepreneurial Leadership in Energy, Health, and the Environment.鈥� I was attracted to this class, and I remember telling all of my friends how excited I was for it, because the goal was for us to meet and engage with professionals and leaders in the fields of energy, health, and the environment while also understanding all of the ways a person can become an entrepreneur, even in daily life. I learned of so many exciting opportunities in this course, such as in the field of climate finance, and travelled to the office of SparkCharge, a leading portable EV charging company. I was inspired by these professionals who recognized a problem and learned how to use various expertise to try and solve it.聽
During this course, I learned of the opportunity to travel abroad with the Schiller Institute as part of their Working For and With Communities course. I knew I loved travelling and was immediately excited by the opportunity to join this unique, community-focused research. I was honored to be accepted into this program, and upon further conversations with Dr. Steinberg, I accepted a position as an undergraduate assistant for the Schiller Institute鈥檚 Executive Office in January of 2024. Throughout this next year, I have formed impactful relationships with Schiller Faculty, Affiliate Faculty, students, alum, and various researchers that engage with the Schiller Institute. These relationships have been tremendously impactful in my time at 蜜桃传媒 as I grew personally and learned so much from the remarkable individuals around me.聽
My experience in the summer of 2024 in Zanzibar through the Schiller Institute was life-changing and unforgettable. We spent a semester preparing for the trip, beginning to understand local culture, customs, and tensions. We arrived in Zanzibar and were welcomed by our community partners. We learned from them about how we could best assist them, then conducted a series of ethnographic interviews in various communities around the island with the aim of understanding the relationships and tensions between stakeholders in the tourism industry, particularly in the context of climate change. This experience taught me how to be comfortable in unfamiliar situations, while also helping me to build my communication skills and inspiring my desire to continue promoting sustainable, equitable development. This work continued into the fall, where we created policy briefs for the governmental agency (Tanzania's Blue Economy Ministry) that we had been working with, and I will continue with the project this upcoming spring and summer.聽
This semester, I am enrolled in Edson Severnini鈥檚 course 鈥淗ealth and the Environment: People, Policy and Technology鈥� and I am excited to learn from such a distinguished researcher about the relationship between health and the environment. This unique opportunity to understand an issue through the lens of public responses, policy makers, scientists, and industries, allows us to understand the complexity of such issues and begin thinking through an interdisciplinary lens to address the issues.
I look forward to my upcoming Summer 2025 experience at Santander Bank in Boston as an Environmental Risk Intern, where I will be working with Santander鈥檚 Environmental Risk team, which works to assess and address potential environmental risks and liabilities associated with real estate lending transactions. This is an exciting next step in my career and I am very thankful for the opportunities and support the Schiller Institute and its faculty have provided for me throughout my time so far at 蜜桃传媒. I look forward to continued growth and taking advantage of the amazing opportunities the Institute will continue to offer in the future!