Finding My Place in Climate Work Beyond the Lab
By Angelina Durbin
Climate Health Risk Tool Communications Intern, Summer 2025
For the majority of my life, I believed that climate work had a single entry point. If I wanted to make a meaningful contribution, I needed to be an engineer or a researcher who spent hours in the lab each day. This belief was instilled in me early on due to my educational background. I attended a STEM-focused high school where I was surrounded by my ambitious peers who founded their own startups, and won national science competitions before they learned how to drive.
Growing up in this environment made me solely view climate change as a technical challenge – one to be solved through equations, models, and groundbreaking innovations. Humanities, storytelling, and communication were secondary skills in my mind – nice to have, but not essential.
Reframing Climate Work at the UW
Coming to the University of Washington gave me the space to start questioning my assumptions. For the first time, I was surrounded by people who were approaching sustainability and climate justice in ways that I had not been previously exposed to. I began to realize that solutions weren’t limited to the work happening on computer screens and in science laboratories. The solutions also lived in communities, in our food systems, in policy, and in the stories we share about why this work is important. For the first time, climate justice started to feel less like a singular career pathway and more like a network of interdisciplinary efforts.
My first step outside my traditional STEM pathway was getting involved with Project Indoor Farm, a vertical hydroponic farm on campus. But instead of helping out with engineering projects, I took on the role of Outreach and Multimedia Coordinator. I was focused on building community within the club, planning educational events, and helping translate the technical work happening on the farm into engaging social media posts. What started off as a creative outlet from my STEM-heavy courseload turned into a newfound enjoyment for outreach and graphic design. I began to see how valuable communication is in connecting the community to environmental solutions.
Shortly thereafter, I was hired as the Food Recovery Coordinator at the UW Food Pantry. In my role, I help prevent food waste by redistributing surplus prepackaged meals from UW Dining to visitors at the pantry. This job shaped my view of how sustainable solutions can be woven into systems that already exist. Working at the Pantry also showed me that environmental work is inseparable from public health and social justice.
These formative experiences in my first year ultimately led me to switch my major from engineering to environmental public health. I wanted to leverage my STEM background to focus on how environmental change impacts human health and our wellbeing. This shift felt both exciting and intimidating. I knew I was moving closer to the questions that motivated me to pursue a career in the climate space, but I was unsure of what my path forward looked like. I knew how to crunch numbers and write a lab report, but I also felt drawn to something I had not been fully trained in: communications and storytelling.
Personal Growth at EarthLab
When I learned about EarthLab’s cohort-based internship program, I knew I had to apply. I believed that this would be the environment I needed to challenge myself and strengthen crucial skills that I had overlooked for so long. I had already built a strong foundation in climate science, but I wanted to learn how to translate these findings in a way that resonated with communities outside academic spaces. This inspired me to apply for the Climate Health Risk Tool Communications internship with the Center for Health and the Global Environment. This position felt like the perfect opportunity to gain experience in a communications role while contributing to an organization that is advancing climate change and health research.
Throughout the summer, I was pushed to think differently about what effective climate work looks like. Each discussion, guest speaker presentation, and conversation with the EarthLab staff team helped me recognize that climate solutions are just as much about community, communication, and equity as they are about science. I learned from my supervisors about writing blogs that are clear, engaging, and accessible to all audiences. I met with public health professionals who were directly interacting with communities and providing them with interventions that addressed their needs. I came to realize that even the strongest climate solutions can fail to create lasting change if they aren’t accessible or designed with the needs of the communities they serve in mind.
Lessons Learned from My Cohort
One of the most memorable parts of my EarthLab internship experience was listening to my peers share their introduction presentations at our first cohort meeting. All fourteen of us came from vastly different academic backgrounds, personal histories, and all had different motivations for engaging in climate work. Hearing their personal journeys and future goals made me feel motivated and excited for the summer ahead.
Some of my fellow interns were interested in creating websites and designing infographics to make climate information more accessible. Others were environmental science majors waking up before dawn to conduct field sampling across Washington State. Some were focused on policy, education, and community partnerships. Each of our internships were unique, but all were essential. Together, we represented the reality that climate work is not a singular career path, but a collective effort strengthened by diverse perspectives and skill sets.
Watching my peers contribute to a shared goal in such varied roles helped dismantle the belief I had held since high school – that climate justice is an area reserved for those with years of lab experience and a PhD. Through my summer at EarthLab, I came to understand that climate solutions require people in computer science, journalism, communications, engineering, public health, and beyond. The research that scientists are doing is critical, but it does not exist in a vacuum. Without people who can translate, contextualize, and advocate for these solutions, it can’t reach the people who need it most.
Finding My Voice in Climate Work
Working in my first communication-focused role felt uncomfortable at times. I was so conditioned to the validation of right and wrong answers with one clear solution. Storytelling required vulnerability, creative freedom, and an openness to ambiguity. It was exactly the challenge I needed to make my internship experience so transformative. I am thankful for all the hours I spent staring at a blank document, rewriting the same sentence over and over again, and talking through writer’s block with other interns. At the end of the nine weeks, I walked away with stronger writing skills, greater confidence in my public-facing work, and a deeper understanding of my own values.
EarthLab helped me realize that there is no one right way to be a professional in the climate space. Engineers and scientists play a critical role, but so do communicators, activists, designers, and public health practitioners. Above all else, the climate movement needs people who are willing to listen, learn, and challenge the assumptions and biases they carry with them. While this internship taught me many valuable professional skills, the most important takeaway I had was re-envisioning where I belong in the climate space. I left the program knowing that climate action is best achieved through a diversity of disciplines, strengths, and perspectives.
As I move forward in my academic and professional journey, I plan to continue working at the intersection of public health, science, and communication. I want to contribute to solutions that are grounded in research while remaining engaged with the communities that climate solutions are intended to serve. EarthLab empowered me to align myself with my core values and approach climate challenges in new and meaningful ways.
NextGen Narratives is a platform tailored for University of Washington students to express how they’re thinking about taking equitable climate action in a variety of ways. If you’re a student eager to join NextGen Narratives, don’t hesitate to contact Allie Long, EarthLab’s Communications Lead, at alongs@uw.edu.
