This past week I had the pleasure of catching up with Tessa Nguyen, a wonderful student from my fall 2020 environmental science class. As an environmental science major, Tessa has a passion for conservation, reptiles, this planet, and for bringing awareness to the impact each of us has on the natural world.

Currently, Tessa is an intern at the Las Vegas Natural History museum and creates educational videos for guests about animal and ecosystem interactions. What is even more amazing is that she is only entering into her sophomore year of college!! This girl is on the ball. She truly has a heart for the work that she is doing, for learning, and for following God’s call on her life.

Another fun fact: For a food web project in our previous class, Tessa created a one-of-a kind visual representation of an Arctic ecosystem’s trophic interactions. I encouraged her to upload her project to youtube (as I was quite impressed) and now today she has over 300 views! A parent even commented on her video letting Tessa know how much their child enjoyed learning from her project and planned to share it with other classmates. Now THAT is how change and inspiration happens, people!! You can view Tessa’s food web project below, follow her on Instagram @tessa.nn, and make sure to listen to the full podcast of our chat together (shown above)!

Tessa is truly an incredible individual with a bright future ahead of her.

I am rooting for you, Tessa! Keep fighting the good fight and remember to take care of yourself as much as you do this planet.