By Jian Hong Shi

I was on my laptop in March, scrolling down the long list of legal victories at the nonprofit law firm where I was interning: ensuring clean water in a local creek, preserving the Carpinteria Bluff, canceling 40 offshore oil rigs. 

 “This is why I came to UCSB,” I thought. I was halfway into my internship at the Environmental Defense Center, thanks to UC Santa Barbara’s Walter H. Capps Center. The Center is the only public-interest environmental law group from Los Angeles to San Francisco. “This is what makes this place so special.”

I was born and raised in New York City, something that often prompts the question of why I chose a school so far and not super well-known. My response is always that UCSB’s Environmental Studies Program is stellar and rich in history. Our program was founded in the wake of the massive 1969 Union Oil Spill off the Santa Barbara coast, the same event that prompted the creation of the law firm where I interned. The Environmental Defense Center’s sterling reputation was initially what made me excited to work there, but five months of learning about the level of expertise and passion required for each of their hard-fought victories is why I’m proud to be involved.

My way into the firm was via the yearlong Sara Miller McCune Endowed Internship and Public Service Program housed within the Capps Center. In other words, I got into the McCune Program and then got matched with the law organization through it. When my internship started, I almost immediately felt at ease with my mentor, Betsy Weber, who is EDC’s Assistant Executive Director. In her words, I am “taking the lead” on our social media by creating content and refreshing our online presence. Hours of research go into these posts and other forms of outreach like website pages and newsletters. In addition to writing updates for our monthly emails, I wrote an item in our biannual printed edition; it was about our recent achievement securing a 100-foot buffer between the new Heritage Ridge development project and the Los Carneros Creek, which will protect sensitive wildlife habitat.

UCSB students participating in the Sara Miller McCune Endowed Internship and Public Service Program housed within the Walter H. Capps Center. The program connects civil-minded third and fourth-year UCSB students with community partners to promote personal and social transformation. Jian Hong Shi is third from left in the front row

Although my 10 hours a week are done online, I have met much of the team on a Hendry’s Beach field trip and, more recently, at Santa Barbara’s huge Earth Day Festival. At the festival, I got to know our legal fellow as well as our new executive director. At the event, multiple people stopped by our table to express their gratitude and let us know they’ve supported the organization for decades, which showed me the long-term, on-the-ground meaning of these courtroom environmental victories.

For my first two years of college — one of them fully remote learning — I sensed something was missing. I am not a party, beach, or sports girl, so I didn’t feel like I naturally fit UCSB’s vibe. It wasn’t until I came across the McCune Program and got involved with EDC that I realized how many opportunities the school gives me to find my niche. Now, at the tail end of my internship and third year at UCSB, I finally know that I made the right decision in moving across the country.

Jian Hong Shi is a third-year Environmental Studies major at UC Santa Barbara. She wrote this article for her Digital Journalism course in the Writing Program.