From the Department of Environmental Science...

This week’s international student of the week is Sandra Rodriguez. She is a second year PhD student in the Environmental Science Graduate Program. Sandra is from Bogotá Colombia, she speaks Spanish, English, and she is learning German.

She has been involved in some organizations on campus. She is the currently the Vice-president of the Society of Environmental Scientists, and the Secretary of Toastmaster International Pacesetters, OSU. She is also a member of the Cultural Italian American Organization (CIAO), member of the International Society of Tropical Foresters, and a member of Xi Sigma Pi, OSU.

In her free time Sandra enjoys dancing, reading, and meeting her friends to learn from different cultures. She also spends part of her free time as a volunteer translator for GreenTeacher magazine.

She came to the US to pursue her graduate degree in Forestry Economics. She chose OSU because during the application process OSU’s staff and faculty were very supportive and friendly.

Sandra’s future plans are to finish her PhD research, which will investigate the contribution of deliberative democracy in sustainable forest management.

She just came back from an internship with the International Union of Forest Research Organizations in Vienna, Austria. She believes this internship has been a great opportunity to understand forest adaptation to climate change as an important issue for the United Nations Convention for Climate Change. She also learned about some sustainable forest and agricultural practices in different countries and also some Austrian culture.

Advisors: Dr. David Lewis and Dr. Will Focht

Sandra’s advice to other international students: We all are citizens of the world, we ought to respect different cultures and extract the best from them to keep this world beautiful and peaceful.