I had the pleasure of interviewing Riss Twigg who is double majoring in environmental policy and journalism and her class rank is 2.
How did you decide on the major you have chosen? Riss was originally majoring in Environmental Science. She decided on this major when she visited campus for the Go Green Go Buckeye event and she also really loved doing field work. However, her dream job was to be a photojournalist for National Geographic and her current major would be more science based and wouldn’t really allow her to be a photojournalist. Therefore she is now double majoring in Political Science to fulfill her dream of becoming a photojournalist. This shows me that though I may enjoy doing something, it may not necessarily be what I want to major in or make a career out of.
How have you chosen to get involved on campus? Everything Riss has gotten involved I has been through the ENR Scholars. One opportunity arose when a guy came up to her and was offering an opportunity for ‘ENR at Large’ for CFAES Student Council. She had an interview with him and was selected to represent SENR on the student council. It was through this involvement that she met her next opportunity. This person was looking to train an underclassman to become President of SENR CO for underclassman. She went to meetings and learned how to run the organization, and this year she has happily taken up the position of President. Riss wanted to be a part of all the organizations under SENR and yet she knew that wouldn’t be possible, but this way she is able to help them and facilitate their growth. The student council helps coordinate events, do funding- they’re a resource for the organizations. This helped me to realize that taking an opportunity can lead to more because she took that one opportunity, which turned into two opportunities when she was able to meet someone looking for an underclassman president in training while being involved in her first opportunity. Take on as many opportunities as you can, without going overboard, because you never know what it could lead to.
What ENR Scholars opportunities are you glad you participated in? She loves all of them! Some of her top favorites, though, include going to the wetlands last year, joining the leadership council, and being a mentor. At the wetlands, a guy said that were volunteer and research opportunities. Being a freshman she couldn’t do the research, but she was able to volunteer. She ended up volunteering as the public relations for the wetlands, taking pictures and posting on facebook. This was her first opportunity she really took on, followed by the Leadership Council which has been a great experience. She has learned so much about planning events and besides being fun, she can apply that talent and CSO in other areas of her life. Riss loves her first year being a mentor, being able to interact with the freshman, and help them out with whatever we may need. This helps reinforce my drive to try and go to as many ENR events because they can lead to great opportunities like her photographing the wetlands, or becoming a member of the leadership council.
What do you plan to do with your major after graduation? Though it was hard to think of what her plans were, Riss is most likely going to go to graduate school especially since there are ways she can get it paid for, which is always a bonus! She’s going to try and intern at National Geographic over the next couple years, but she needs seven years of journalism under her belt to become a senior environmental writer so she might do something to accomplish that. She has also had peace core in the back of her mind as well as the idea of studying abroad to Iceland because she has heard so many great things about the trip. This tells me that it’s ok not to have a clear, set in stone plan, especially since I’m only a first year and she’s only a second year. However, it’s still good to be forming a general idea in my head so it can guide my actions as I move through the years.
How do you balance academics and involvement? Freshman year was very difficult for her, and a lot of people, because she was used to being the top in their class so she never really had to study in high school and she never did her first year and it showed. Now she knows she needs to leave time in her schedule to allow her to study. Balancing that with involvement was hard because she wanted to do everything but she knew that wasn’t possible. She said to write down your top passions, what you love to do the most and then she group them into hobbies/free time and school applicable for example. Once you have that, pick which ones are most important to you and decide how much time and effort you want to put into it. Now you can decide how often or even if you want to volunteer, what organizations you want to be a part of, and so on. Basically just try to align your involvement with what you love and what you want to do. I definitely plan to keep this in mind and reference back to this if necessary when I am trying to join other clubs or organizations and need help on how to divvy up my time.
I really enjoyed talking with Riss. It was great to talk with her more and on a one-on-one basis. She had some amazing tidbits of advice when I mentioned coral reefs and possibly specializing in ecosystem restoration and I loved it.