In 2018, Emily graduated college with degrees in political science and environmental studies. Emily saw these programs as her “best route to create change,” and since then she has been creating change in enormous ways. Inspired by people’s stories, especially those of hurricane survivors, and their positivity, Emily joined the NECHAMA team to shed light on the beauty in communities surrounded by strife. She always knew she wanted to make an impact, but until graduation last year she was not entirely sure how.
Through May 2019, Emily was an AmeriCorps NCCC member as part of a specialty Disaster Response and Wildland Firefighting team. She spent ten months responding to communities in immediate need following hurricanes, like Hurricane Florence and Michael. She and her team also assisted the George Washington National Forest with prescribed burns to preserve the health of the forest. When her year ended, she had already been offered a position as an Emergency Response Member with AmeriCorps St. Louis to continue pursuing her newfound passions.
While in Puerto Rico, Emily has been putting together biographies of clients and volunteers to share their stories with you. One of her favorite parts of the job is that she gets to highlight our one-of-a-kind volunteers. She says that, “there are not that many people in the world who will sacrifice their time, and we get to show that to the rest of the world and brag about them a little bit.”
For her commitment and shining attitude, NECHAMA is so thankful to have Emily on our project staff team. On the ground, Emily has been one of the people providing the entire NECHAMA community with updates, project highlights, biographies from across our community, and incredible photos to go along with it all.