Katie Edelen ’11 [right] arrived at Augsburg intent on becoming a doctor and helping people in war-torn countries. Following her junior year of college she traveled to Chennai, India to shadow doctors in government hospitals and work with a doctor who brought internal medicine services to refugee camps, slums, and villages.

In India, she began to see the effects of peoples’ actions on the environment. “What really spoke to me were all the people who had been exposed to water-borne, preventable diseases because of unsafe sanitary conditions,” she recalls. She saw that issues related to health, education, poverty, and social justice were connected to environmental problems.

This experience led Edelen to pursue other opportunities centered on water and its role in society. She took a course on environmental and river politics led by environmental studies professor Joe Underhill Cady. She also traveled to Uganda and worked with villagers on water access and conservation, even starting a “safe water and hygiene club” in the primary school.

Edeln received a Fulbright research fellowship and will work at the Peace Research Institute Oslo researching the correlation between armed conflict and water hazards and scarcity. Following her time in Norway, she will pursue graduate work in environmental studies at Oxford on a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship.

Similar to her friend, Kathy DeKrey ’12 [left] came to Augsburg wanting to find a way to help people who live in toxic areas. In her first year of school, she took the Environmental Connections course. “On the first day we talked about how the environment is everything, even the things that destroy nature. I was so angry because I thought that’s not true!” As she went through the program, she realized the value of being able to look at issues in that way.

DeKrey traveled to Portland, Ore. and Vancouver, BC with the Sustainable Cities in North America class and began to realize how complicated the environmental movement can be. “I saw gentrification at horrible levels that didn’t even seem real, and next to it was this amazing sustainable city,” she says. She says she wondered how some citizens felt pride in their sustainable habits and environments when others were digging through the garbage and selling trash to each other.

Throughout the program, DeKrey says she has learned that in order to make change in an area, it is important to have an open dialogue and honor what all parties bring to the discussion. As a project for one class, DeKrey worked on writing the environmental history of Minneapolis’ Midtown Greenway. “Writing this history has helped me realize how in my work as an environmental activist moving forward listening and understanding the needs of everyone involved is more important than your own agenda,” she says.

In 2011, DeKrey received a Udall Scholarship, named for U.S. Representative Morris K. Udall. The scholarship is awarded to students committed to careers related to the environment, tribal public policy, or Native American health care.

After college, DeKrey plans to study environmental and public interest law. “I want to help the people who don’t have power in our system regain a safe place to live that isn’t full of toxins. I think it’s important to empower people to do things that they think are important,” she says.

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Edelen was awarded both BA and BS degrees on Saturday with majors in environmental studies, chemistry, and biology. She was also called to the podium to accept the Marina Christensen Justice Award, presented to the graduating senior who best exemplifies Augsburg’s motto, “Education for Service,” and has demonstrated a dedication to community involvement. The award honors 1965 graduate Marina Christensen Justice, who lived in Chicago and reached out to serve disadvantaged people and communities.

An Honors Program graduate, Edelen was a Sabo Scholar in civic engagement and a Peace Prize Forum Peace Scholar. Throughout her four years, she challenged herself to find opportunities that would provide her knowledge across disciplines and hands-on learning. She seeks a career that combines application of science to public policy decisions that will improve the lives of people in countries lacking services, equal access to resources, and just policies.

Edelen decided against a medical career as she discovered how treating disease can ameliorate its symptoms but doesn’t remove the underlying structural causes. As an intern in both rural India and Uganda, she saw how lack of access to clean water extenuates the effects of disease and poverty. This led to internships with the White House Task Force on Climate Change and Energy Policy and with local environmental groups to learn how to translate and bring science to community issues, and how to build common interest to create change in public policy.

For almost three years as a Sundquist Scholar and with national grants, Edelen carried out research in atmospheric chemistry with Professor David Hanson, investigating the oxidation mechanism and atmospheric interactions of isoprene, a volatile, organic compound. She presented the research in the student session at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting and is awaiting a decision on publication.

For the next year, Edelen’s Fulbright will take her to Oslo, Norway, continuing research that she began last summer as a Peace Prize Forum Peace Scholar at the Oslo Peace Research Institute. She’ll study the relationship between lack of access to water and armed conflict in the world.

Edelen received word last week that she has also been awarded a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship for the following year, 2012-13. The scholarship covers all expenses for one year of graduate study.

She does not yet know at which of the five institutions she selected—in England, New Zealand, South Africa, Denmark, and Egypt—she will be placed. All five programs study environmental management and policy, some focusing specifically on water resources. Her first choice is Oxford University’s Master of Science in Water Science, Policy, and Management.

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