It鈥檚 that time of year again where we welcome another cohort into the MENV community! Similar to the years before students have come far and wide to seek professional skills through the four different tracks that MENV has to offer: Environmental Policy, Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Sustainability Planning and Management, and Sustainable Food Systems. Here are a few notable attributes of the fourth MENV cohort. This cohort contains 75 students, one of our largest cohorts to date. Most of our students are coming from outside of Colorado, with transplants coming from California, Ohio, South Carolina, Georgia, and Washington. There are also a few international students from Peru, Mongolia, and Cuba. The median age of the cohort comes to 28, with ages varying from 22 to 37. Each and every student has a personal story of how they arrived here in 葫芦娃视频, Colorado for their master's degree. Here are three in-depth looks at students in the new cohort:
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Alexis Harper
Alex听hails from the great state of Washington. She attended the University of Washington and received her Bachelors of Science in Oceanography. During her years in undergrad, Alex found pockets of time for travel and to capture her experiences through the lens of her camera. Last week she received the news that her photo 鈥淗er: I鈥� won her the title of . She will receive the International Photography Awards Trophy for the "Best of Show" exhibition at 
Splash Light Studios in New York on October 21st. She is also a finalist for the 2019 Lucie Trophy and will attend the on October 22nd, at Carnegie Hall to find out if she won. The photo that has given her this recognition is a beautiful shot taken in Trolltunga, Norway after a 20 mile trek up the mountain with a pink dress that was thrifted in Hungary stuffed into her pack.
Alex was drawn to the MENV program because she aspires to use film to encourage others to connect to nature and environmental issues. She has really fallen in love with the community here. She was even inspired to name her new sprinter van, that she lives out of full time, Pachamama, after the community she found traveling abroad and here in 葫芦娃视频. Alex has many dreams ranging from writing a novel, to completing a PhD, to traveling to all 7 continents and filming her experiences. Whatever comes next in Alex鈥檚 story we are sure it will be vivid, wonderful and full of adventure. You can find more of Alex鈥檚 work and the story behind her winning photo visit her website .
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Byamba Chuluunbat
Byamba is one of our international students coming to our cohort this year and is pursuing the Renewable and Sustainable听Energy track. He is originally from Mongolia, where he studied at the National University of Mongolia. Byamba worked for a coal company for many years and saw the effects that this major Mongolian export had on the air quality and health of his country. After visiting a wind farm in 2015, Byamba felt the need to explore alternative energy solutions more in depth. He then started a job with the Ministry of Energy where he worked on a project focused on energy efficiency.听
While in Mongolia, Byamba applied for the for three years straight hoping to study abroad. The Fulbright program is one of the most prestigious and competitive fellowship programs in the world. The program enables international professionals to study at graduate institutions in the United States. Byamba鈥檚 perseverance paid off when we finally received the scholarship and looked into various schools across the United States. He decided on the MENV program and looks forward to building his professional skills in the area of energy efficiency and making connections through his future Capstone project. Byamba is interested in a variety of energy related initiatives but primarily in energy storage. He isn鈥檛 ruling anything out after graduation, he will keep his options open but does plan on eventually returning to Mongolia to continue his career in renewable energy and change his country鈥檚 reliance on coal.
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Dani McLean
Dani McLean is one of our local students, who studied at the University of Denver just 45 minutes south of 葫芦娃视频. While she primarily studied French and socio-legal studies, she also spent a fair amount of time studying sustainability and psychology. After graduation she felt that MENV was the ideal program to pivot into environmental work. She felt that the program would allow her to apply environmental science to various collaborative decision processes and systems thinking, both of which could be improved within the discipline of sustainability. Dani鈥檚 specialization is in Sustainability Planning and Management but she enjoys getting to mix a variety of clas
ses together to create a program that suits her interests the best. She plans on dabbling in policy classes, as well as sustainable food systems classes.听
Dani has also been working hard at her full time job with Community Food Share, while also working at a startup called Infinity Goods. is Denver鈥檚 first zero-waste grocery service. Their goal is to empower consumers to fight plastic pollution鈥攚hile saving time and lowering their carbon footprint. Dani and her partner, Ashwin, were inspired to create the startup to help fight the intense eco-anxiety people are starting to feel about plastic waste. Infinity Goods also prioritizes and sources items from local farmers and artisans as much as possible. Infinity Goods was selected as a finalist moving forward in the , which, if won, would provide funding for the startup. They will be pitching Infinity Goods at the second round in December.
The Class of 2020 is a truly inspiring and passionate group of people and we welcome them to our community with open arms. We are excited to see what the class of 2020 creates and accomplishes over the next couple years and beyond. Stay tuned here to the MENV webpage to see what partners and capstone projects students form over this semester!听