Hi! I’m Maggie, a member of the 2020-2021 Correspondent team! I am a Senior at the University of San Diego, majoring in Environmental and Ocean Sciences.
I grew up in the city of Chicago. Spending much of my childhood in Chicago’s river parks and along the lakefront, I developed a deep appreciation for urban nature, something that can easily fall underappreciated by folks outside of city limits! As a cross-country runner throughout high school and college, many of my most meaningful experiences with the natural world have been through sport. I’ve witnessed change in the shoreline of Lake Michigan firsthand through my years running there, and am currently conducting a GIS research project mapping the recession of the shoreline at North Avenue Beach.
In my senior year of high school, I took an aquaponics class that introduced me to sustainable agriculture, and I became interested in intersections between technology and the environment. I originally planned to pursue a degree in sustainable engineering, but have found my way to journalism and the correspondent role through re-declaring my major six (six!) times, close friends in the field, and through the support of USD’s exemplary writing faculty.
After graduating from USD, I plan to spend some time working in the field with ecological research and conservation-focused volunteer work before applying to more writing-oriented graduate programs. I hope that my experience in the science world will be able to inform my storytelling in a meaningful way. A fun fact about me is that I’ve swam across the U.S. /Canada border in the St. Lawrence Strait!