Wilson Haims (she/her) is a recent graduate from Wellesley College, where she majored in Environmental Studies with a concentration in law and policy. She is also an alum of the Williams-Mystic Maritime Studies program, where she had the fantastic opportunity to learn about fisheries management in regions ranging from New England to the western US. During her time in undergrad she has worked as a naturalist, an environmental educator, and a researcher in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Alaska.
Going into the Young Voices of Science Program, Wilson hoped to learn how to use science communication as a tool to enhance inclusion and community engagement with environmental ideas. “I hope to use this experience to find ways to communicate scientific issues with people from a diverse array of backgrounds and perspectives,” Wilson wrote. “Ultimately, I see science communication as a way to include people in engaging with concepts that, as humans, we are naturally curious about.”
Through Wilson’s incredible outreach project, she was able to do just that. Drawing on her experience as a naturalist and researcher in Alaska during the summer of 2023, Wilson wrote a long-form creative nonfiction piece that compares the culture of subsistence fishing and environmental ethos of the Alaskan communities she encountered with that of her home state of Maine. “Learning about the healing properties of many common species left me wondering about what might shift in our society if more people had access to knowledge about nature and increased environmental literacy,” Wilson wrote of her experience in Alaska. “By witnessing how Alaskan communities depend on salmon and moose populations as primary food sources, I realized how all humans have the capacity to be deeply aware of the systems and cycles of the natural world.”
Wilson’s piece is currently being prepared for submission to About Place. Stay tuned when her piece is officially published and give it a read!
