Sustainability Honors Graduates

Gizman Baraso

Major: Healthcare Studies

UT Dallas Organizations: Terry Scholars Student Organization, Student Ambassadors, Freshman Mentor Program, Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students, Black Students for Public Health

During my freshman year, I had the opportunity to volunteer at Camp Summit for one week during spring break through the OSV [Office of Student Volunteering] Alternative Spring Break and it was such a great opportunity to give back to individuals with disabilities and I wanted to continue participating in service during my time at UT Dallas. After learning about the UN Sustainable Development Goals, I noticed how many of the different service events I was already participating in related back to these goals. I continued by weekly volunteering at a nearby clinic and serving with the Terry Scholars Program at different events including Homeless Coalition of Dallas, Breakfast Cathedral of Hope, and Minnie’s Food Pantry to name a few. Being able to give back to different communities through service has definitely been one of my highlights as a student and I plan on continuing my service post graduation. I plan on hopefully receiving my PA/MPH dual degree after taking a gap year, and would like to work in low-income communities and change health policy for these underserved communities. I believe that advocating for my future patients and making important changes within our healthcare system to better serve all people will continue to serve as one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Blanka Bordas

Major: Biology/Healthcare Management

UT Dallas Organizations: Terry Scholars

I am a traditional Terry Scholar and honors college student double majoring in Biology and Healthcare Management. I am passionate about service and excited for new opportunities to volunteer with organizations throughout my undergraduate career. I hope to attend medical school after college and work in a family planning clinic, both as a career and volunteering on weekends when I can.

Hillary Mai Dang

Major: Healthcare Management

Minor: Marketing

UT Dallas Organizations: Environmental Conservation Organization, Society of Sustainable Businesses, Healthcare Management Organization, Freshmen Mentor Program, Professional Program in Healthcare Management

I like to call myself a frugal environmentalist. My family has instilled in me to care for all living and non-living things to preserve their life as long as possible. I carried this thought throughout my life and threw myself into sustainability since high school reading countless articles and watching many videos on the topic. I personally took it upon myself to do small things to live a more sustainable life such as composting and reducing the amount of plastic I use. I stumbled upon a video discussing how businesses should be responsible for the production of waste they create and just “100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions”.

This made my mindset shift to getting businesses and organizations to adopt more sustainable practices. I went to an ECO [Environmental Conservation Organization] meeting in my Sophmore Year and I was inspired when they were discussing the “Single-Use Plastic Ban” at UTD. I threw myself to help this cause in any way I can by emailing UTD organizations to spread the word, asking professors to talk in front of my classmates, and posting it on social media. I still to this day am in full support of this and progress has been made for this movement, but sadly UTD still has not heard us yet. At this time, they have said they want more data supporting that students would like to have other options rather than single-use plastic.

I became Treasurer of ECO [Environmental Conservation Organization] , then the Vice President of ECO, and lastly the President of ECO. Many collaborations occurred during my time as an officer of ECO and the projects being reborn or born during my presidency truly make me hopeful of the community’s efforts to make more businesses and organizations adopt more sustainable ways in practice. I know with crowd support we can make an everlasting change and will continue to strive for more sustainable practices in every organization I am a part of./p>

Allyson Jane Deverse

Major: Neuroscience

UT Dallas Organizations: Student Government, Tri Delta, Residential Life

I came to UT Dallas to study Neuroscience to become a Physician Assistant. I’ve always been passionate about health and how an individual’s actions can impact the lives of others. December of 2019, I picked up a book about how foods affect our long term health and decided to try veganism. The more I learned about being vegan, the more I started to care and become interested in the environment. It became less about doing something about my health and more about how my actions directly impacted the environment. To this day, I eat a primarily plant-based diet, with less strict rules and an occasional cheat meal. With more research I found the the intersectionality of sustainability with health and social justice. I realized how medical racism and environmental racism intertwine and wanted to change my mindset about my pre-health track and place sustainability at the forefront of my motivation. For the 2020-2021 term of Student Government, I served as the Green Initiative Committee Chair. Through GI, I have been able to partner and work with many people focused on sustainability to create resources for students and impact UTD. In the future, I will be applying to PA school and in my studies I will continue to examine aspects of functional and preventative medicine. I hope to do an internship in Summer 2021 relating to plant-based nutrition. I will continue to do service and practice sustainable living. And finally, I will continue to learn more about sustainability and allyship.

Josue L. Fonseca

Major: Healthcare Studies

UT Dallas Organizations: UTD Terry Scholar Student Organization, Joint Admission Medical Program, Center for U.S. Latin American Studies, University Housing - Peer Advisor, and Last Writers Program

Service has been a passion of mine since I was in a little kid wanting to find ways to help people who did not have cars to get to work or did not have food. I kept this passion of service through high school and college. In college, I learned what service really means to me and how vital it is to better our world. Service comes in many shapes and sizes between cleaning up a park to translating in a free medical clinic. I learned that as much as my service has helped others, it has also helped me. Through my service, I have been able to discover myself on a deeper level and help find my motivation. Serving others keeps me motivated and shows me that being able to bring even one smile to someone through the work I do means the world. I want to make sure that I am using the skills and knowledge I have gained from the privilege of being able to attend college and help others with who are disadvantaged. I will continue to do this through serving others as a Medical Doctor as I continue my training at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine.

Shivani Gandhi

Major: Software Engineering

UT Dallas Organizations: Pratham, iFriend, Freshman Mentor Program, Fashion Club, GalXc, ACM, Society of Women Engineers, Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers, Ladies in Tech Mentoring Program, Women Mentoring Women in Engineering, WEHack UTD

Being a first generation Indian-American, I was taught to make the most of opportunities and to work hard to be successful, but most importantly to give more than getting. Whether I was giving advice through mentorship or providing resources to those around me, I found joy in helping others reach a goal and can’t begin to express the overwhelming emotions associated to those who are sincerely grateful to you for your help. College has served as a platform for me to work with many other like-minded individuals in a variety of domains, but the main area of focus during my undergraduate career was becoming involved in ways to support and encourage more women in stem. The highlight of this goal was being able to be on the founding team of WEHack, UTD’s first ever all female, non-binary uniting hackathon, which I also recently won. I am grateful for all of these opportunities and plan to continue my service and mentoring journey in my future endeavors. I hope to share my experiences and connections so they are of value to the next generation of women wanting to join male-dominated fields.

Rohini Kallianpur

Major: Neuroscience

Minor: Environmental Studies

UT Dallas Organizations: None

My love for sustainability manifested in a pretty predictable path– from a love of the outdoors. I grew up camping and hiking, and always loved the outdoors. My grandfather had a green thumb, and I used to totter around the garden behind him, helping wherever I could. When he fell ill, I picked up the slack and managed our plots on our own, becoming a master composter. Getting an education in sustainable practices through the master composter course opened my eyes to how interesting the local ecosystem was! I took classes during my time at UTD to foster this interest, and was able to learn a lot.

While I don’t plan on going into a career involving sustainability, I’m very interested in social determinants of health, and how they impact patient outcomes. I’ll be attending medical school next fall, and hope to continue volunteering for sustainability organizations in the Dallas area.

Caroline Lonneman

Major: Geosciences

UT Dallas Organizations: Eco Reps

Tiffany Lourdraj

Major: Information and technology systems

UT Dallas Organizations: Intervarsity USA, Project Management club, Alpha Phi Omega, Period Project Club

I am studying Information and Technology Systems, and I hope to one day go into the fields of renewable and sustainable energy. I am passionate about developing technology and the ways in which we can help the environment through constant innovation. I am wanting to pursue Sustainability Service Honors today because I recognize the value in the UN’s Sustainable goals for the betterment of our society. As some one who did Model United Nations for Three years in High School, I know why these goals are important if we are to eliminate key issues such as pollution, poverty and gender disparity. I believe that beyond college I have many plans to continue to give back to the community. For example, I would love to eventually be a part of the Peace Corps. I will certainly take these values later on life to serve my community and beyond.

Julia Helen Mihail

Major: Biology

Minor: Spanish

UT Dallas Organizations: ECO, Biochemistry Association, Food Recovery Network, Comets Help

The aspect of sustainability that motivates me the most is Good Health and Well-being as well as sustainable consumption and production. As a student with the intent to go to medical school, helping in any way that I can in order to give or improve healthcare is one of my main goals. I have always been passionate about how our society overproduces and does not consume all of the production. I have dedicated my time to directly decreasing my involvement in this issue and helping outside organizations in this matter. I absolutely see myself continuing my dedication beyond college by continuing to decrease my food waste, donating excess materials, not participating in over-consumption of materials, and dedicating my life to helping people get access to good healthcare.

Bella Ngo

Major: Information Technology and Systems

UT Dallas Organizations: Davidson Management Honors Program, Office of Student Volunteerism

Since I was a freshman, I have spent the past three years serving and facilitating services that ranged from upcycling used denim and plastic at in-person events to creating a food relief initiative during the COVID-19 pandemic. When I look back on my time as an OSV [Office of Student Volunteering] Senior Student Leader, I’m struck by how much I could learn about sustainability as a personal lifestyle and how much more I could make sustainability an institutional practice on campus. As one of my fondest memories, I will remember the power of collective engagement shared between the OSV [Office of Student Volunteering] family and our on-campus/community partners that allowed us to turn sustainable practices and outcomes from an idea into lived and enjoyable experiences for students. Moving forward, I hope to find similarly driven people so I can continue growing in my relationship with my local environment and doing what I can to draw out the life span of the natural world.

Chandani Ajaykumar Patel

Major: Info Technology and Management

UT Dallas Organizations: Office of Student Volunteerism

Yen Pham

Major: B.S. Marketing

UT Dallas Organizations: UN Children’s Emergency Fund, Comet Marketing, Student Government, Orientation Leaders Program, Eco Reps

Community service has always been an important part of my life. I knew coming into college that I wanted to give back to my community but wasn’t sure in what ways. During my time at UTD, I worked as an Eco Rep for the Office of Sustainability, helping the office with its marketing, outreach, and initiatives.

Outside of campus sustainability work, I spent spring break 2019 with Habitat for Humanity through OSV [Office of Student Volunteering] ’s Alternative Spring Break Program, 2 years as an officer with UTD UNICEF [United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund] , acquiring donations to support UNICEF [United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund] in delivering life-saving supplies and services for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, and volunteered with IRC Dallas to help teach English as a Second Language to refugee and immigrant adults. Community service and the 17 UN SDG [United Nations Sustainable Development Goal] s have shaped my college experience and helped me become the person I am today. I’ve learned that we have so much impact and each can use our skillset and what we’re passionate about to make the world a better place! Beyond college, I know the UN SDG [United Nations Sustainable Development Goal] s will stick with me in everything I do, not just through community service. With that, I hope to inspire the people around me to make small changes in their lives as well!