Meet the Interns: Hi, Fiona!
We’re wrapping up our summer intern series and are so excited to introduce you to Fiona! Fiona is a smart, passionate and committed advocate who has been busy supporting our Programs + Operations team this summer, specifically through our local efforts (have you seen her blog post on the upcoming Run4Salmon?). Her insights and care have helped to shape our summer, and we’re so honored to have her with us!
Please help us in giving Fiona a warm welcome!
Name: Fiona McLeod
Hometown: Berkeley, California
If you had a superpower, what would it be (and why)? I would want to be able to teleport myself around the world. I love traveling and exploring new places. If I could teleport, I could walk out of the library, hop on over to the Pacific Crest Trail or the Great Barrier Reef for a study break, and then get back in time for my next class.
Why did you want to intern with WEA? I have been following WEA’s work for many years, and always knew it was an organization that I wanted to be a part of. At school, I am majoring in American Studies with a concentration in Native and Indigenous Studies, and I hope to focus my future studies (and maybe eventually my career) at the intersection between human rights and the environment. WEA, with their Shedding Light on Environmental Violence project and other work with local indigenous communities, is the perfect place for me to become involved with this type of work!
Tell us about a woman who inspires you. My mom and her three older sisters are some of the most empathetic, passionate, and resilient women I know. These women are artists, teachers, and leaders in everything that they do, and they ground my entire extended family with an appreciation for the incredible strength that they show every day.
Why women and why the environment? Especially in the current global political climate, I believe it is more important than ever to invest in communities that are disproportionately affected by social and systemic injustices. Investing in women means supporting the health and well-being of entire communities and the environment at large, and provides women with a higher degree of agency to create positive change in the world.
What does your life outside WEA look like? When I’m not at WEA, you can usually find me reading a book by the ocean, hanging out with my family, or wandering around taking photos. I also work at a circus camp during the summer and am currently interning at an environmental law firm, Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente (AIDA). In between all that, I’m planning an upcoming three-month-long solo trip to Argentina and Chile!
What’s your favorite thing to do in the Bay Area? When I’m away at school, the thing I miss most about home is spending time outdoors with my friends and family. The Bay has an unbelievable wealth and variety of beautiful places that are all so close together…if you live here you can be in the mountains, the woods, and at the beach all in one day, and I can’t imagine anything better than that.
What are you currently reading / watching / listening to? So far, my favorite books of the summer have been On Beauty by Zadie Smith and The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. I’m currently reading The Glass Castle and get basically all my news from listening to Pod Save America with my brother.