A Note: Thank you

I graduated with distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Global Studies and minors in Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainability.

I dedicated much of my time at Carolina to art, fashion, and environmental advocacy, through which I developed my true passion for telling stories. I was consistently challenged by diverse voices to be a better artist, storyteller, and person. And through collaboration and vulnerability, I pushed the bounds of my creative work beyond any limit I had ever imposed on myself.

Thanks to my academic path, extracurricular involvements, and professional experiences, I leave UNC with the resolve to bring my dreams to life and to let them run free in this next chapter.

I do not know where I would be without the love and support I consistently received from the Morehead-Cain Foundation. To say that this scholarship and the staff changed my life would still be an understatement. And to my professors, advisors, and mentors, thank you for inspiring my self-discovery and for showing me the world through your lens. I know that I would be a different person – with different hopes, with different ways of interacting with the world, and with different understandings of my place within it – had it not been for everything I learned and experienced with you.

My personal undergraduate thesis could be summed up as the quest of finding “perfect places.” Somewhere along the way, I began to tell myself that perfect places were just an idea, ones that I was not sure I would ever find. And that was ok because it kept me moving, it kept me dreaming.

No matter where this journey took me – from the Alaskan backcountry, to Cape Town, to New Delhi, and onto Ventura – I always ended up missing one place, one moment, one feeling. Home. For the past four years, Chapel Hill was just that. It was home for me.

As I drove off Franklin Street on May 29th towards Miami, I knew that I was leaving behind a perfect place. Though that feeling will change, morph, and grow in the coming years, I will always carry Chapel Hill, and the people who made it feel like home, with me for the rest of my life.

Looking ahead, I am most focused on capturing human-environment interactions, exploring coming of age traditions, and positioning myself for a career in filmmaking.

Thank you, Carolina, it has been a dream and then some.