
In this interview, I sat down and talked with Junior environmental studies and journalism student, Amanda McCard. During her time at the University of Connecticut, McCard has become deeply involved with multiple environmental activist groups on campus. However, recently she has had the opportunity to extend her reach even further beyond the bounds of Storrs, Connecticut. Through a program run by the University, she will be in attendance at the 28th annual Conference of the Parties, run by the United Nations. This episode will focus on McCard’s environmental work both locally and globally.
Transcript:
Emily Markelon: Hello, my name is Emily Markelon. Thank you for tuning in. Today, I had the privilege of talking to and learning from a fellow student, Amanda McCard. McCard is involved in many extracurriculars here on campus with her main focus in environmentalism. I discussed with her about her involvement on campus and how she tackles important issues. Most importantly, I had the opportunity to discuss with her more about her experience as one of 12 students from the University of Connecticut who has been given the opportunity to attend the 28th annual Conference of the Parties.
Amanda McCard: My name’s Amanda McCard. I’m studying Environmental Studies and Journalism.
Emily: In her first three years on campus, McCard has kept herself busy and has been able to get involved in a variety of different ways. Besides being involved in different environmental-based extracurriculars, She also writes a variety of articles for a club called Her Campus.
Amanda: I’m part of Her Campus, which is like UConn’s chapter of a national online magazine for college women. Um, I’m part of the outing club where we go on some hikes and do some fun outings. I also work at UConn’s Office of Sustainability. And I’m a director of Ecoposium, which is an environmental symposium at UConn.
Emily: While McCard believes her classes are a great way to build her skills, her involvement on campus has helped her to get more hands-on experience in the community. The University of Connecticut, with its student body of about 20, 000 students, has a plethora of extracurriculars that can be tailored to any student and their specific interests. It is up to the student to figure out how to use these skills learned in the classroom and strengthen them outside of class, and McCard has done just that.
Amanda: I definitely think my extracurriculars have kind of supplemented all the things I study. I have a lot of environmental-related classes, because that’s one of my majors, also journalism classes. And then extracurriculars that tie into both of those, which kind of all tie into my goal of being an environmental journalist. But it’s really fun to get involved with the environment in different ways on campus because there’s a lot of different, like, avenues you can take toward, like, environmentalism.
Emily: According to an article published by Stephanie Reitz, the University of Connecticut spokeswoman, the university plans to become carbon neutral by the year 2030. This lofty goal took the university community by surprise when it was announced in late 2022. Although this goal may make the university look good, many environmental activists on campus Believe these statements are merely performative. McCard voices her perspective on this topic as well.
Amanda: Um, yeah, it’s definitely something I really care about and really hope to see UConn do. I’m not super directly involved with a ton of activism for that particularly, but definitely through my job and then some clubs I’m in, like we definitely all care about that goal a lot and are hoping to see. a lot of change in that area and I definitely also want to become more involved in some direct activism and like calling on UConn to make the changes it’s promising.
Emily: Although McCard is not directly involved in this large-scale type of activism, she does work in a lot of what she considers to be behind-the-scenes type work. This type of work is equally as important. With issues as complicated as climate change, it’s important to start at the root of the cause. Trying to achieve lofty goals without a strong foundation will not be as effective as working at the ground level. Small-scale outreach and education, although it may seem trivial, is something that McCard is involved in on campus. She takes great pride in this aspect of her activism because she understands the importance of education when it comes to holding authority figures, like the University of Connecticut, accountable for their actions.
Amanda: Through my work, we do a lot of kind of smaller-scale actions to make UConn more sustainable. Like for example, I work on Bee Campus and Tree Campus USA, which is like a set of standards universities have to meet to be like friendly toward pollinators and also trees. And we also plan a lot of events to kind of get students more involved in environmentalism, so I’m pretty active in that space. I guess just like the educational and outreach component through my work at Ecoposium because our goal is just to educate people about environmental issues and hopefully encourage them to take action as well.
Emily: Because of the fact that McCard has been so impactful in her activism on the local level due to her involvement in extracurriculars. McCard has been given the opportunity to extend her reach beyond the town lines of Storrs Mansfield. At the end of the year in November, she will be attending the 28th annual Conference of the Parties with 12 other University of Connecticut students, as well as students from other universities.
Amanda: Yeah, so, um, I’m going to COP 28, um, which is the annual U. N. Conference of the Parties. This year it’s in Dubai. I found out about it through my job at the Office of Sustainability, um. Our office is pretty involved in the planning and like advertising of the program, but it’s a really incredible opportunity. I’m going to be able to go with about, I think, 12 undergrad and maybe one or two grad students. Yeah, but I just applied because, you know, it’s something I’ve never done before and it’s a really cool, big, worldwide event.
Emily: The application for this program allowed McCard to showcase her extracurricular involvement on campus through her resume and professor recommendations, among other materials.
Amanda: I think the application was like an online form that included I think one or two essays, a bunch of short answers, and then like a resume, and then two letters of recs from professors. Yeah, and I just like wrote about why I wanted to be a part of this, why I care about environmentalism at UConn and also like globally.
Emily: Upon her acceptance into the program, McCard showed her gratitude and humble nature by explaining how excited she is to be a part of such an amazing part of history.
Amanda: I guess it was my boss that notified me first, but like kind of unofficially because he wasn’t on the selection committee but he like, knew them I guess. So, he found out and he called me over the summer and he actually like told me, he was like, Oh, I’m so sorry. I have such bad news. And I, like, I figured he was just telling me I wasn’t going to make it and I was okay with that. But he was like, the bad news is you’re going to be on a plane to Dubai. But then I got the official email and we’ve had a few meetings to prepare us and we have a few more before we go, but I was really like surprised that I got it because I feel like I’m like, it’s such a huge event and I feel like it’s crazy that I’m going to be able to go. But yes, we’re going in November.
Emily: McCard explained that this program would take place this year in November, a notoriously busy month for college students. This left me wondering how McCard would manage balancing this trip and finishing up her classes. Would her professors be understanding? How much work would she miss? Would this impact her final grades in her classes?
Amanda: Uh, yeah, I told most of them, like, either in the beginning of the semester, or a few of them I just told a few weeks ago. Pretty much all of them are, or actually all of them are very supportive, and they all think it’s a really cool opportunity. Also, it’s like the very last week of classes, so it doesn’t seem like I’m going to miss all that much, except like some reviews for finals, a few deadlines I’ll have to turn in a little earlier, but nothing too major.
Emily: Being a young college student at this heavily impactful conference, with many highly powerful people, there is a lot of pressure for McCard to perform well. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that she will remember for the rest of her life. This is a learning experience that not many people get to go through, so she wants to make the most of it and share her knowledge with the rest of the community, no matter how heavily she may influence the outcome, if at all.
Amanda: So we have, like, observer status, so obviously we’re not gonna be, like, doing anything at the conference, like, impacting it in, in any way. Except I do think all the, either observers or, like, everyone there with a certain type of institution, like, is technically on this board that gets to, like, have one representative that kind of, like, has one vote. So, like, we have a very, very… Very minor impact on the events, I guess, but mostly we’re just there to learn and then afterwards we’re gonna like do some projects to kind of share what we learned with the UConn community. And I’m also hoping to make some content for the Office of Sustainability’s like social media and blog and stuff while I’m there. Most people just like either at UConn or just like in the broader community like don’t get the chance to go to this and it’s important that everyone knows what’s going on because it affects all of us.
Emily: The mere fact that the University of Connecticut is able to send students across the world to Dubai to participate in this conference is an amazing feat. However, it made me think about whether or not other schools have similar programs as well. Not only would this provide an amazing opportunity for many college students to learn about climate negotiations, but it would also be an amazing opportunity for students around the world, across multiple universities, to collaborate with one another.
Amanda: I don’t know how many universities do it, but… There definitely are other universities sending people. This weekend, actually, I’m going to a conference put on by the Yeah network, which is like, I guess, a bunch of different schools that, like, all send people to COP. Um, so, I know some people from, like, some Colorado universities, some Massachusetts universities, I don’t know which, but I think a handful of other universities have similar programs.
Emily: Climate change can be a very daunting subject to cover, because the news tends to make it seem very disheartening. However, McCard gave her insight into how she is able to balance her own emotions that may come out during this conference.
Amanda: I hear that it’s pretty, like, depressing being in the negotiations because it’s just, like, so much arguing, and, like, it seems like so little progress is made, but I also hear that, like, all the activists and protesters who gather outside the conference are, like, really inspiring, and it’s really great to hear about all the, like, smaller changes they’re making in their own communities. So, I think it’ll be, like, a whirlwind of emotions, but it’ll be really exciting.
Emily: Despite these strong negative emotions, that may arise in McCard during this conference,there are many aspects of it that she is looking forward to as well.
Amanda: I’m really looking forward to just meeting a bunch of people who really are passionate about making environmental change and like doing so in so many different ways.
Emily: It is clear that this conference will provide McCard with opportunities for emotional maturity in a way that she would never have imagined. Additionally, attending a major event like the Conference of the Parties will enable McCard to take one step closer to achieving her personal career goals after graduation. Not only will this opportunity provide McCard with important preparation for covering other environmental events in her career, but it will also give her an opportunity to learn from and connect with other professionals in her desired field, making this opportunity a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Amanda: Um, after college, I’d like to be an environmental journalist and kind of, hopefully, Travel and report on different environmental issues and like initiatives around the world so COP I think will be a really good like learning experience for that I’ll get to like first of all just see such a major environmental event. Um practice like talking to all different people and learning from them and like telling so many different stories that I’ll learn at the event and then also I think it’ll be a great networking opportunity to find like the journalists covering it and learning from them as well.
Emily: Being able to participate in this type of geopolitical event on such a timely topic at such a young age gives me hope for future generations. McCard, as well as myself, want to spread this news about climate change around the world in hopes to make steps towards a more sustainable future for us all because it starts with us.
Amanda: Yeah, I think it’s definitely important for people to know just because climate change is something that will affect like every person in the world. So everyone definitely has a stake in it, and it’s unfortunate that only such a select group of people will ever be able to experience the like international negotiations, which really will have an impact on everyone. So I wish there was a way to make it like a lot more accessible. But yeah, I do think it should be Maybe like even like public schools like high schools and middle schools should teach more about what’s happening like internationally in terms of climate change legislation and just I hope it’s made more accessible because everyone like deserves a chance to know what’s going on.
Emily: For any current UConn students who are interested in applying and want to know more about this opportunity, McCard encourages all students to keep an eye out for the application and apply because you never know what might happen.
Amanda: Like, anyone who’s even remotely interested should apply because it feels very, like, daunting, I guess, to go, but, like, you don’t even have to be an environmental science major or anything like that. Like, like I said a million times now, but everyone has a stake in it, so, like, everyone deserves to be able to go, so you should try to if anyone wants to.
Amanda: In sitting down with McCard for this interview, I was not only able to learn about her experiences in environmental activism at the university, but it also gave me an opportunity to reflect on my own choices within the community as a whole. Environmentalism is not just about attending these large-scale events, like the United Nations Conference of the Parties. It is also equally as impactful to take the time to advocate for small changes. For someone like me, who doesn’t know where to start when it comes to environmentalism, because these large scale conferences seem too daunting, Activism can seem disheartening. However, hearing McCard explain how she is involved in multiple levels of activism, locally, regionally, and soon globally, it helps to show me that not all hope is lost.I wanted to thank you all for taking the time to listen to this episode, and I hope you learned just as much from McCard as I did. Finally, I just wanted to leave you all with a quote from a journalist, Finley Peter Dunn, that I think sums up the lesson that I learned from interviewing McCard from the lens of environmental journalism: “The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.”
Links to further research:
UConn Aims to be Carbon Neutral 2030
Picture Credits:
No More Fossil Fuels Rock: Taken By Me
Jonathan No More Fossil Fuels