I first met Karina because she wrote a
really good article for the Charger Bulletin.
Because she isn't a journalism major or communication student
I'd never heard of her. She's a marine
biology major, which breaks my heart,
because I want her to be one of us.
But she wrote this really good article,
and I started paying attention to her.
Toward the end of last year when the
choice of editor had to be made, she rose
to the top very quickly.
I think people today don't really know
about the scientific community.
We hear these things like climate change and global warming and ice caps melting and
nobody really knows what it means,
because they don't have the background
to understand it. So through my studies
I'm getting that background, and through
different extracurricular activities I
do,  Model UN, the Charger Bulletin, I'm
getting the writing skills and the
speaking skills to convey that to the
general public so that they understand
it and so that they'll go for
environmental legislation and
environmental policy.
For Karina, her interests are in saving the environment.
But to do that she really believes where she can make
impact is through policy. And MUN gives her the opportunity to develop her
policymaking skills and chops and to be
able to influence policymakers and
people, so that what she can do is she
can help save the world in that sense.
Journalism is all about finding the
truth and fighting for the truth, and I
think science is a lot of the same
parallels. And one of the reasons I think
it's so important even just on this
campus, especially being editor in chief,
is because I'm not a journalism major,
and I just think that that's a really
great thing. Because in the professional
world and outside of college, you're not
pigeon holed into one thing, so you don't
have to be a journalist to write for the
paper, and you don't have to be a
journalist to want to find the truth in everything.
And that's really what I try
to channel through the Charger Bulletin.
She has this persona where she can make
the decisions when she needs to, but
basically her approach is follow me. She's
a wonderful leader.
I've been really lucky and fortunate
here. I have the presidential scholarship
that I got right when I was accepted
into the university. I also have a
scholarship through the Honors Program,
and last year I was a recipient of the
Hatfield Scholarship. Just everything financially that I've
been given at this University has meant
the world to me, and I really wouldn't be
in the spot that I'm at right now
without all of that.
My success started here.
