Alessandra Zapata Guilen

Something About Me

When I first heard about Environmental Studies I was in my junior year of high school and I had yet to decide upon my plan for higher education. Since I was a child, I had always loved spending time in nature, and so I knew that I would pursue environmental work, not only so that I could work to protect the natural world but also to improve the well-being of the people in my community. My plans are to pursue a career as an Environmental Engineer. To accomplish my goals as an environmental scientist, I chose to major in Environmental Studies and later further my education with a second major in Mechanical Engineering. Because I am from East LA I know from personal experience the harmful effects of pollution on low-income communities, so I hope to be able to use my education to address the impact of environmental policies on low-income communities. In my spare time, I enjoy swimming–but in my two years at UCSB I’ve never made time to actually get into the beach's waters. That’s something I’ve added to my to-do list for my third year. I also love sewing and flipping old clothes into new outfits. Besides getting to into the beach next year, one day I hope to learn to drive a race car.