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Hope Saxton is a recent graduate at NAU with a Bachelor of Science in environmental and sustainability studies. She served as the Impact Analyst for the University\u2019s Green Fund for a semester, which was an entirely new role that she trail blazed for.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hope discovered that she wanted to work in sustainability in middle school. She read a book called <\/span>Cradle to Cradle<\/span><\/i> about sustainable practices in city design, which planted the idea in her mind that sustainability was possible on a large scale. That same year, she took an engineering class where she was assigned a final project to create a futuristic city, which also had a competition at the end of it where everyone\u2019s cities would compete to go on to a state competition. She knew this was her opportunity to put what she had read in <\/span>Cradle to Cradle <\/span><\/i>to use.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She poured hours into this project, making a blueprint for a city that would last for years. When Hope arrived at her school\u2019s competition, she noticed that everyone around her had made their cities look stereotypically futuristic\u2013 flying cars, silver and chrome buildings, and not much nature. Her city was green and lush. Hope won third place at this competition and advanced to state. In her memory, she marks this as the moment she realized she wanted to work in sustainability.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI got super excited about this project\u2026 I was like, we should make our future city completely sustainable. In my head, this was kind of an obvious thing to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Hope is currently working for AmeriCorp until she leaves for Peace Corps in August, where she will get to work to fight climate change in central Mexico.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hope specifically wanted to recognize Rachel Cox, a journalism professor, and Taylor Joyal, a sustainability professor, who she says she loved working with in her time at NAU.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n All of these things have lead Hope to the career path she chose, and she says she wouldn\u2019t want any other career.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n