Student Story

Lucy Zhao

I came to the Center for Restorative Change in the third year of a dual degree program. As an Asian American I grew up balancing two cultures and saw how the United States as a global player is a huge contributor to pollutants worldwide. At the Peace Corps I worked at the Department of Health in Thailand on zero waste projects. I found myself asking why Thailand was having to deal with so much waste emitted by Western countries. That’s when I realized I wanted to do sustainability work, which is quite unusual for a social work student in Baltimore. But the Center supported me in my learning journey. I see myself working in the public health space eventually, at the systemic level. If we try to compartmentalize environmental justice or social work, it doesn’t solve either the local issues or larger systemic challenges effectively. Everything is intertwined and interwoven in the larger fabric of our lives. 

The Center for Restorative Change gave me a canvas to paint my future on, and I’ve been able to build connections here that will set me up to make the kind of impact I want to make. In social work, we’re often dealing with overlapping crises. So, it’s a privilege to say “we should recycle” when somebody is dealing with the need for, say, housing. But the systems that create these crises intersect with each other. White supremacist policy perpetuates environmental injustice as much as it perpetuates housing challenges, mass incarceration and community violence. 

Compared to those other policy areas it can be challenging to bridge global sustainability policy to its local on-the-ground impact. Baltimore isn’t experiencing wildfires like in California, although we did get some of the smoke from Canadian wildfires recently. The need for sustainability is not as salient in people’s lives here. But these issues are insidious, and if we don’t nip them in the bud they’re going to get worse. 

I’ve split my practicum between the University’s Office of Sustainability and the School of Social Work. At the Office of Sustainability, I’ve helped the school to implement sustainability initiatives and projects. I’ve helped to create a food recovery program. People sign up to get an alert when there is food left over at university events. This simple program cuts waste and feeds hungry people. 

On the School of Social Work side, I’ve worked closely with a faculty member, Dr. Nicole Maddox to raise greater awareness of the connections between social work and climate change and find ways students can become more engaged and involved in these issues.

Without explicitly stating environmental justice connections, the profession of social work will fail to address these huge structural issues in society. Housing and transportation equity are directly related to environmental injustice, for example. But it’s not a connection people in social work tend to make. 

We created an eco-student group that designed an environmental justice three-credit course that we’re aiming to introduce. We are also working to add an environmental justice curriculum to the university’s foundation courses. We created drop-in sessions for students to come and work on the curriculum. 

We learned the ins and outs of navigating the university system with the help of the faculty. We’ve been trying to improve the university experience for students, and I wouldn’t have had the motivation to pursue that change if not for the sense of community I got through the Center for Restorative Change. 

Coming into the Center with a public health background, and this interest in sustainability, I can see how other learning institutions might have said, “you don’t fit.” But the Center for Restorative Change listened to my interests and helped me intentionally shape what I wanted to do. That’s a rare academic and learning experience. Having the practical opportunity to deliver on my core values has transformed my sense of potential.