Simon, a recent graduate of Evergreen’s Master of Environmental Studies program, seeks to bridge academic inquiry with tangible community impacts to ensure sustainability efforts uplift both people and planet.
Simon first heard about Evergreen through a family member and was immediately drawn to the school’s beautiful campus and liberal academic environment. After years of studying in more traditional educational settings, Evergreen’s open and interdisciplinary approach appealed to him. In addition, the College’s flexibility allowed him to merge his academic roots in Plant Biology and Environmental Engineering with emerging interests in sustainable urban planning.
Once on campus, Simon was moved by how connected the community is to nature. “Evergreen’s campus feels like it’s nestled in a forest,” he says, “and it’s easy to find hiking trails, streams, and quiet places to reflect, even just steps away from academic buildings.” At Evergreen, Simon dove into coursework in geospatial analysis, climate policy, and conservation ecology to deepen his understanding of systemic challenges.
“Dr. Shangrila Joshi, my thesis advisor, guided me in combining qualitative narratives with quantitative data,” explains Simon. “Mike Ruth, instructor of the graduate GIS courses, transformed my technical skills through hands-on spatial analysis projects. Behind the scenes, Averi Azar, the MES assistant director, provided administrative support, from navigating program requirements to connecting me with community partners.” Simon says many other faculty members also enriched his growth through workshops on academic writing, data processing, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Simon also acknowledges how scholarships and the MES thesis fund helped alleviate barriers to fieldwork and surveys and enabled him to gather original data critical to his thesis study.
“My thesis project examined ridership patterns in Thurston County’s zero-fare bus network,” says Simon, who launched his research in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, he focused on collecting public opinion about the local transit system serving Evergreen and the larger Thurston County to better understand community needs and perceptions. He organized the feedback into a clear, accessible report and shared it with Intercity Transit to provide a snapshot of how people experience their bus systems day-to- day. Simon hopes his findings and analyses can serve as a helpful resource for future planning efforts.
