Clare EigenbrodeAfter graduating from Beloit College in 2020 with a double major in environmental justice and citizenship and Spanish language and culture, and a journalism minor, Clare completed two years with a national AmeriCorps program called City Year, then held science communication internship at the Urban Ecology Center, both in Milwaukee. She is currently working as a freelance writer as she prepares to head (remotely) into her first semester in Johns Hopkins University’s MA in science writing program.

Clare’s career as a science writer began when she received a grant from Beloit College to spend the summer before her junior year as an intern with an environmental justice nonprofit in San Francisco, where she conducted hands-on work with the environmental justice movement. She returned to Beloit College for her junior year with some bold ideas to strengthen our college’s environmental justice and citizenship major. She shared them in an editorial that she wrote in the college newspaper, The Round Table, and delivered a symposium presentation in which she offered suggestions to prepare students for internships in environmental justice. The professors and the students in the program were very responsive and worked together to make them actionable. She was also writing web and print stories for the Communications & Integrated Marketing office, sharpening her writing and editing skills and honing her literary voice. 

“This highly valuable experience was exemplary of my time in the ENVS major, and of my Beloit career in general,” Clare says. “I always felt that I had a legitimate say in my own education, and I’m deeply grateful for the confidence and critical thinking skills I gained because of that mentorship. I know those qualities made me a competitive candidate for my master’s program! I encourage current and prospective Beloit students to take advantage of their faculty’s willingness to help them tailor their education to suit their own needs.”