Natalie Cassidy, Latin American, Latino, & Caribbean Studies and Environmental Studies Majors and Spanish Minor and Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Certificate
BAIRD E-PORTFOLIO
Natalie Cassidy '18
Natalie is an Environmental Studies and Latin American, Latino, & Caribbean Studies double major, Spanish minor, and is pursuing a Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Certificate. After high school, Natalie participated in a gap year program in Panama, Costa Rica, and Peru, studying sustainable agriculture and community development. This experience confirmed her interests in sustainable food systems, especially the impacts of globalized food systems in Latin America. She later pursued additional international experiences related to the field, including an internship in the summer of 2015 as a Permaculture Design and Agroforestry intern at the Jama Coaque Nature Reserve in coastal Ecuador. Natalie spent her junior year studying abroad in Mendoza, Argentina, where she conducted an independent study examining peasant farmer movements and social impacts of the soy industry’s explosion in Northern Argentina. She continues to research this topic as it forms the basis of her senior thesis for her Latin American Studies major.
On campus, Natalie's favorite activity is her position at the Dickinson College Farm as a Student Farm Worker and Youth Educator for one of the farm’s youth education programs, Sustainable Earth Education (SEED), a position she also held during her sophomore year before going abroad. She also enjoys serving as the Global Ambassador for the Dickinson in South America program, through which she hopes to increase awareness of opportunities for students interested in studying sustainability-related themes abroad. Natalie is looking forward to collaborating with the other Baird fellows and gaining different perspectives on sustainability through the colloquium.