University of Chicago rising fourth-years Annie Yang and Seri Welsh have been recognized by the Udall Foundation for their work and commitment on environmental causes.

Yang was named a Udall Scholar while Welsh received an honorable mention from the organization, whose undergraduate scholarship is awarded to future leaders in environmental, Tribal public policy and health care fields. It provides each of the 55 winners with educational funds as well as the opportunity to attend a summer orientation with the rest of the Udall Scholarship cohort.

The foundation is named in honor of Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall—brothers whose careers in public service helped shape Native American self-governance, health care, and the stewardship of public lands and natural resources.

Learn more about the UChicago recipients below:

Annie Yang

Yang, a Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization and physics double major from Eastvale, Calif., has always taken an interest in environmental causes. However, it wasn’t until she visited a permaculture farm in France the summer before her first year at UChicago that she found her focus. This scholarship will now help her deepen the work that started there.

“I am incredibly honored to have received the Udall Scholarship and am excited to meet and learn from fellow scholars in their network.”

Yang’s experience on the farm cultivated her desire to work in sustainable urban design and reform current environmental systems toward circularity, a model that prioritizes reducing waste and increasing environmental sustainability.

“I’ve been working at the intersection of infrastructure, environmental justice and community empowerment both on and off campus,” said Yang. “My research centers on how midstream infrastructure shapes energy transitions and the communities that are embedded in those systems.”

Yang has made the most of her time involved at UChicago—she’s a member of the Center for Robust Decision Making on Energy Policy, serves as chair on the Undergraduate Student Government Committee for Campus Sustainability and is co-president of the Phoenix Sustainability Initiative.

Last year, she helped coordinate groups both on and off campus to work toward improving mobility in Hyde Park as “both an equity and environmental issue.”

Without the help and resources that UChicago provided her, Yang doesn’t know if she would have been able to get involved with environmental causes as deeply as she has.

“UChicago has offered me a plethora of ways to engage with environmentalism: from its passionate student base to [recognized student organizations] to research opportunities and thoughtful, experiential, truly life-changing classes,” Yang said. “I am truly thankful to the University for enabling me to pursue and explore a future life in environmental advocacy.”

Seri Welsh

For Welsh, a political science and human rights double major who is also working towards a master’s in international relations, climate change has hit close to home. A native of Arcata, Calif.—a rural town in the state’s northwest—Welsh has seen the landscape that she grew up in change rapidly. That issue sparked her desire to act.

“Growing up surrounded by redwoods, beaches and mountains, I fell in love with being outdoors at an early age,” Welsh said. “Being surrounded by nature shaped my early experiences but by my teenage years, I began to notice the increasing toll that environmental change was taking on the landscape.”

These changes were caused by increased flooding, wildfires and rising sea levels. The problems have become such a severe issue that local governments are having to construct new roads and highways just to keep out of Mother Nature’s way.

“I have always been passionate about protecting the environment because the consequences of inaction were too great,” Welsh said. “Applying and receiving recognition from the Udall Foundation was just another step in continuing my environmental justice path.”

So far, that path has led to several roles within the undergraduate environmental organizations at UChicago. Welsh is now co-president of the Phoenix Sustainability Initiative after beginning with the program during her first year on campus. Rising through the ranks allowed her to see where the initiative was effective and where it could improve.

“That insight shaped my approach as I took on greater leadership,” said Welsh.

“I’ve tried to focus less on what we can do as individuals and more on how we can build power together—whether that’s by pushing for transparency and progress on UChicago’s 2030 plan, helping make course books more accessible through Harper Library, or connecting students to larger movements like the fight against the Line 5 pipeline or advocacy for the Clean and Affordable Buildings Ordinance.”

Welsh plans on writing her fourth-year thesis on climate-induced displacement. She is particularly interested in international disaster frameworks that focus on sudden events over slow-onset changes such as rising sea levels and the destruction of forests across the globe.

The Udall Scholarship will allow her to see this thesis through.

“It provides institutional affirmation for work on these precarious issues while personally reminding me that present-day roadblocks shouldn’t deter me from a career in environmental justice,” Welsh said.