Julia Weimer is another current intern at Freshwater, helping with communications projects. Julia went to high school in Woodbury and split her college time between the universities of Colorado and Minnesota, graduating with an environmental studies degree, a French minor, and a marketing certificate.
Julia’s interest in environmental studies grew organically from her passion for the outdoors. She loved nature from a young age, and spent vacations camping with her family. In school, she naturally gravitated toward science.
Today, she’s making use of her French with a stint as an English teacher in France. While abroad, she’s also taken on several projects for Freshwater—she wrote a profile of high school interns Lala and Winner, as well as a story about a teacher using Weatherguides in online learning.
Looking to the future
After her English teaching, Julia hopes to find a career path focused on sustainability, which was her concentration in school. She aspires to work in a field supporting water conservation, sustainable business development, or decreasing carbon emissions. Wherever her work takes her, she’ll bring an awareness of climate change and environmental justice.
“It kind of gives me a purpose to work on something so dire and so important for the wellbeing of everyone on the planet. I feel like recently there’s been a rise in people really caring—the younger generation is standing together, which inspires me,” she says.
“I feel like there’s a lot of teamwork and hope in my friend group. People are taking personal and bigger steps to create change—talking with their families, voting. More conversations are being had and there’s more hope: It’s become an issue at the forefront.”
Freshwater connection
Julia’s connection to Freshwater began with her dad’s role as a board member. She says his work with organizations like Freshwater made him aware of climate justice, and the two of them bonded over that. “He thought Freshwater’s work would align with my values really well,” she says. So she took the plunge and reached out to see how she could help the organization—and those writing projects were a great fit.
Freshwater’s local work on environmental and water issues also drew Julia in. “I felt like in Minnesota there’s such a good community of people working toward that goal” of empowering people to preserve freshwater resources.
What’s next?
As she moves forward into her career, Julia hopes to spread environmental awareness and help influence government and business to make positive changes.
“Freshwater has really shown me how I can achieve my goals, with strategies about how to communicate to the community about the environment, ” she says.