Meet some of our Urban and Environmental Policy (UEP) majors.
Jade Crichlow
Hometown: Denver, CO
Majors: UEP, economics
What was your motivation to major in UEP?
I chose to major in UEP because it allowed me to turn all of my interests—people watching, riding the train, and exploring new cities—into a critical lens on how our built environment impacts the way we move around a city. After being assigned to walk around a neighborhood in UEP 101 and synthesize my findings to evaluate the underlying dynamics revealed in things like the size of the sidewalks and the observable green space, I was hooked by the opportunity to use Los Angeles as my classroom, and to put words to and find solutions for the inequities that I experienced and observed in my own life.
What are your ambitions post-Oxy and how has the liberal arts approach helped to put you on this path?
My liberal arts education has empowered a broad perspective of what a future career can look like. I have dreams and aspirations of pursuing a career in urban planning as well as becoming a public librarian, which at first glance seems random, but my experience at Occidental has illuminated the intrinsic and interdisciplinary connections that can be cultivated through the determination to think beyond linear expectations and make space for the change I want to make.
I was hooked by the opportunity to use Los Angeles as my classroom, and to put words to and find solutions for the inequities that I experienced and observed in my own life.
Have you taken part in any student research opportunities through Oxy?
Throughout my time in the UEP department, I have built a fervent research focus on equitable public transit. As a result, my senior comps project examines where cultural amenities can be equitably distributed at Los Angeles bus stops and stations to enhance the overall experience of existing LA Metro riders. This project is inspired by the work that I performed for my Justice Summer Internship in the LA Metro Station Activation department that utilized placemaking principles to center communities at Metro Rail stops across the county.
Can you describe your working relationships with UEP professors? Are there any standout classes you’ve taken?
I feel incredibly lucky to learn from professors who are not only immensely knowledgeable, but truly care and are excited about teaching. Throughout my four years, I have frequented the offices of various professors and I have always been met with a level of kindness and curiosity that has been critical to my growth as a student and a person. The classes that stand out the most to me have been the ones where my professors have challenged norms and shifted my perspective on why things are the way they are. These classes include “Black Ecology Collaboratory,” “Urban Economics,” and “Reimagining Public Safety.”
Catalina McFarland
Hometown: San Diego, CA
Major: UEP Minor: Spanish Studies
What was your motivation to major in UEP?
I chose to major in UEP in order to learn about different approaches to social and environmental justice and to gain the skills and critical perspectives necessary to effectively address the climate crisis. UEP provides an interdisciplinary, community-based framework for tackling these systemic issues. A highlight of my UEP experience so far has been when I worked on an urban farm in the San Fernando Valley through the Justice Summer Internship program. I got to see firsthand the potential of local food systems to be a vehicle for climate resilience, food sovereignty, and community empowerment.
The UEP department brings together individuals who care deeply about people and the planet, and who represent a really diverse range of experiences and interests.
Have you taken part in any student research opportunities through Oxy?
Since the spring of my sophomore year, I have been working on an independent project with Prof. Cech to establish a system for composting all of Oxy’s unrecoverable food waste on campus through the implementation of an industrial food scrap dehydrator. Building on research conducted by Oxy’s former Assistant Sustainability Coordinator Isa Merel ’23 and students from the UEP course "Sustainable Oxy," this proposal seeks to mitigate the environmental and social impacts of Oxy’s wasted food while connecting campus departments and community partners in recycling our valuable organic material back into local ecosystems. It’s been an incredible learning process to translate an idea that started in the classroom into real change on campus!
What is the vibe of the UEP department?
The UEP department brings together individuals who care deeply about people and the planet, and who represent a really diverse range of experiences and interests, from housing policy to environmental governance to food systems and more. The UEP professors are very supportive and bring a wealth of personal experience working on the ground in research, politics, and community organizing to their teaching. I am constantly inspired by my professors and my peers in UEP, and I would describe the overall vibe of the department as empowering.
Rosalie Deglise Moore
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Major: UEP Minor: Food Studies
What was your motivation to major in UEP?
I was born and raised down the hill from the largest urban oil field in the United States: the Inglewood Oil Field. My first protest was against fracking happening near my home. Then came the 2015 Santa Barbara oil spill which spread tar over the Los Angeles beaches. The more I looked, the more I saw the same story repeating: oil companies profiting while communities—locally, regionally, and globally—paid the price. The oil industry has been a constant presence in my life—and because of that, it has become the through line in my education and advocacy. It was my first disillusionment but also my first call to action. It shaped my daily environment, my family’s story, and my sense of justice from a very young age.
Having completed two years of college before transferring to Occidental as a junior, I knew that I wanted to specialize in a career in policy that would empower me to make the changes I sought in my childhood. I made the choice to come to Oxy for its UEP program, where I could gain the necessary practical skill set and theoretical, critical frameworks. Thanks to UEP’s required 310/311 community organizing course, in my very first semester at Oxy I already had an internship with Jobs to Move America, a policy center rooted in racial and economic justice and community organizing. By December I was planning an independent study on feminist political ecology and extractivism with Prof. Peña. Now as one of the UEP student coordinators, integrating into and connecting with the tight-knit major as well as its faculty and students felt seamless.
In my very first semester at Oxy I already had an internship with Jobs to Move America, a policy center rooted in racial and economic justice and community organizing.
Have you taken part in any student research opportunities through Oxy?
For my senior comps, I will be conducting a year-long, mixed-methods community engaged research project with Jobs to Move America (whom I have stayed on with as an intern ever since taking the UEP organizing course!) on Community Benefit Agreements (CBA) in rurally cited energy projects. I hope to argue that the method of securing the CBA, through coalition-led organizing compared to institutional mandates, is as crucial as the contract signature in terms of shifting power and upsetting the status quo.
Did you study abroad? How did it enhance your education?
Despite being a transfer student, I had the chance to study abroad both at my previous institution and at Occidental. In the spring of my sophomore year, I spent eight weeks studying political ecology and food sovereignty on the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean. I feel incredibly lucky to have also gotten the chance to spend three weeks in Beijing, China through the unique faculty-led study abroad component of Occidental’s history course The Transformation of Urban and Rural China. After an entire semester learning about the topic, Prof. Day and a dozen or so students and I travelled to Beijing. There, I studied capitalist agrarian change, ecological civilization in terms of land use policy, and its effects on agriculture and rural life. Beyond studying ideology and broad policy—which can at times feel abstract—seeing the transformative change enacted upon the landscape and rural life was an incredibly illuminating experience.
What are your ambitions post-Oxy and how has the liberal arts approach helped to put you on this path?
Shortly after I graduate from Occidental, I plan to pursue graduate studies in environmental or climate policy. I would like to work within organizations that use policy and research to back organizing efforts, and as means of socio-ecological changemaking. A liberal arts approach, when combined with UEP, is especially useful when it comes time for me to apply for graduate school. I will leave Occidental with an applied, specialized degree on top of all the benefits of a critical interdisciplinary education.
Simone Maher
Hometown: Portland, OR
Major: UEP Minors: politics, Critical Theory & Social Justice
Have you taken part in any student research opportunities through Oxy?
I worked as an undergraduate research assistant for Prof. Cahen focused on school facility financing in California. I also participated in Oxy’s Undergraduate Research Center’s Summer Research Program (SRP) with the Gerken Fellowship for public policy research. Through SRP, I conducted an original research project titled “Linking California Public School Facility Financing to Tree Canopy Coverage: Wealth and Race-Based Inequities to Climate Mitigation and Adaptation.”
Did you study abroad? How did it enhance your education?
I studied abroad in Granada, Spain, in the spring of my junior year. My experience—both in my community-engaged courses in politics, Spanish, international relations, and urban culture, and in my daily life immersed in the city—transformed my understanding of how urban policy shapes urban culture. Through my courses and my program, I met with community organizations and small businesses advocating for policy change and traveled to cities and countries with unique urban planning frameworks and policies.
Through one-on-one support in office hours, detailed feedback on assignments, and academic, career, and internship guidance, the UEP professors stand out for their supportive working relationships with students.
Can you describe your working relationships with UEP professors? Are there any standout classes you’ve taken?
Through one-on-one support in office hours, detailed feedback on assignments, and academic, career, and internship guidance, the UEP professors stand out for their supportive working relationships with students. My favorite UEP courses are “Urban Policy and Politics,” “Urban Data Analysis,” and “Community Organizing,” where I interned with the organization Strategic Actions for a Just Economy. Through these courses I developed essential skills in policy analysis, data analysis, and community organizing that supported my research and internship experiences while shaping my academic and career goals.
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