This mentality informed not only internal dynamics, but external practicalities, like the amount of funding provided to scholars. “I was impressed with the level of compensation for our research summers and internships,” Anderson says, adding that Professor Taylor was keenly attuned to the fact that “unpaid internships are just another way to further the class divide, and to perpetuate a lack of access to these types of opportunities among people with low-income backgrounds.”

After finishing the program and graduating from college, Anderson returned to her hometown and spent several years developing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at an environmental nonprofit. This vocation was rooted in her experience in Doris Duke, as her scholarship overlapped with a period in which she was coming to terms with her identification as queer.

“I was able to connect with everyone in that program based on who they were and that just gave me a lot of security,” she says. “It made me feel welcome to be myself, and so I was really exploring these ideas of inclusivity, and decided I wanted to carry them into my professional life.” After a few years she began to consider a return to graduate school. She was “cozy,” though, in Salt Lake City and needed a strong justification to leave her position. She reached out to Dr. Taylor, who had recently moved to YSE and who had been inspirational throughout Doris Duke. Anderson was persuaded to apply.

“I’ve run into so many people who feel like they don’t have time for equity issues because climate change is so urgent,” Anderson says. “I came to YSE to gain a better understanding of DEI and environmental justice, and to develop the skills I’ll need to incorporate these issues into the workplace and broader community.”