My name is Tamara Mrad and I’m a rising junior at Davidson College. I am majoring in Biology and minoring in Spanish.

I’m one-third French, Belgian, and Lebanese and grew up in Dubai, home to over 200 nationalities. I’m a goalkeeper on the Davidson Women’s soccer team. In my free time, I enjoy playing the guitar and the piano, cooking, binge watching doctor shows on Netflix and spending time with friends.

One of my favorite classes so far has been my Conservation Biology class, which taught me a lot about how we are destroying our planet. After taking that class, I knew I wanted to do something to make a difference. I therefore decided to apply to the Summer Sustainability program that Davidson was offering. I was very thrilled when I learned that I got paired up with Sustain Charlotte, a great organization that is doing so much to create sustainable communities through advocating for land use and public transportation.

My main responsibility this summer will be organizing Sustain Charlotte’s Youth Transportation Fair with Youth Quake and other community partners. I look forward to sharing with the younger generation knowledge about the challenges we are facing with respect to transportation. These include the impact of greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants. I hope to inspire and encourage youth to take action, however small, to make a difference to protect our planet and communities from the dangers of pollution caused by urbanization.

My main interest concerning the environment has always been about the consequences of gas emissions on human health. My love for human anatomy and my drive to make our planet greener has led me to pursue medicine with an aim to become a surgeon and potentially be part of the Medical Advocates for Healthy Air program. I believe this will help me save lives and also provide me with a credible platform to advocate for change and make people stand up and listen and join me in making a difference to ensure the sustainability of the planet and humanity.