By: Maura Driscoll '15
Maya Whalen-Kipp ‘16 is the Kenney Community Center’s Volunteer of the Week.
As a result of her participation in Power Shift, an environmental youth activist conference held in Pittsburgh, Pa., last year, Whalen-Kipp learned about the plans for an event that was expected to be the “largest convergence of people for the sake of the planet that has happened in modern history.”
In collaboration with environmental leaders from four other schools in the Capital Region, Whalen-Kipp helped organize over 500 students to join 50,000 other students from across the country to join the Peoples Climate March in Manhattan on Sept. 21.
Last year, Whalen-Kipp also spent a term abroad in Siem Reap, Cambodia learning about NGO politics and economics, and this winter break will be traveling to New Zealand to study alternative and renewable energy systems.
An environmental science major with a focus in engineering and minor in visual arts, Whalen-Kipp was awarded the Bittleman Research Fellowship to work with Prof. Lorraine Cox from the Art History department to help design a new interdisciplinary course on sustainability, environmental and political activism through visual culture.
A sister of Alpha Delta Lambda sorority, Whalen-Kipp is also a STEP mentor for local schoolchildren a resident adviser in Fox Hall. She is also the vice president of the Environmental Club on campus, and is involved in other organizations such as U-Sustain, Ozone House and Octopus’ Garden.
Originally from Queens, N.Y., she serves as the co-chair of Identity Dialogues on campus and hopes to design sustainable urban spaces and greener inner city systems after graduation.