Friday, October 7, 2011

Meet the Interns: Laura

Hi everyone! My name is Laura Neff and I am a junior at the U of A. I am majoring in Environmental Science with a focus in policy and minoring in Gender and Women's Studies. I am a returning intern from the Spring semester and proud to call myself the co-chair of the F.O.R.C.E film series.

To start off, I was born and raised in Phoenix and lived there through high school. In Phoenix is where I learned of the wonders social justice, though I didn't refer it to that until later. Starting in middle school I worked with a group called Stand & Serve that is based in Tempe. This group was focused on building a more respectful community by teaching youth about the idea and practice of primary prevention (stopping the problem before it happens) to end oppression. This is where I got my start and I continue to work with the youth in this group when I am able to.

How did I get started here do you ask? My freshman year a group of friends and I would make it a point to go to any free movies in the Galleghar when we could and the WRC film series just happened to fit into that category. I loved most, if not all, of the movies that we went to and I continued to go to them even when a few of my friends did not. My sophomore year I decided to sign up to intern with the WRC and loved it, so I decided to continue! F.O.R.C.E has shown me that feminism is not a narrow point of view when it comes to social justice. It can intersect with almost any aspect of human life and I continue to learn more about just how relevant it is in today's society.

With this experience and my major, I plan to become an educated activist in the new environmental justice movement by being an advocate for fair environmental policy that not only helps the environment, but helps people as well.