Sameera White (MS ’25) graduated with a Master of Science degree from the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) in May. She specialized in Behavior, Education and Communication (BEC) and Sustainability and Development (SusDev). 

What did you do before coming to SEAS?

I graduated from the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), and my degree was in chemistry and biology. While I was at UAH, I worked part-time for the Department of Sustainability for two years and realized that I really enjoyed sustainability, especially higher education sustainability. So that’s what pivoted me toward wanting to get my master’s degree in sustainability and environment.

Why did you choose SEAS and the BEC and SusDev specializations?

In Alabama, hardly anyone knows what sustainability is. When I told people I was coming here to get a master’s degree in sustainability, one of the questions I got the most was, what is sustainability? So that made it very apparent even before I got here that there’s so much that people don't know about sustainability, and it’s not because they go out of their way not to know, it’s just that they don’t have the resources to understand what sustainability is. I knew I needed the skills to be able to educate them and understand why they think a certain way about sustainability. 

One of the things that drew me to SEAS is that I was able to do a group capstone project here, and I saw that the master’s projects were really cool and interesting. Another is that SEAS is just a very good school, and it is one of the only ones where you’re allowed to be interdisciplinary. Other schools don't allow you to jump around other specializations and expand your skill set as much as SEAS does. BEC and SusDev, in particular, allow you to have a lot of flexibility in your electives. I wanted to learn how to change people’s behavior, but I also needed to know what development would be like in Alabama and how to account for carbon emissions, so I took a lot of systems classes.

What were your experiences like as a SEAS student?

I’ve been in SEAS Student Government the entire time I’ve been here, which has allowed me to be the voice of a lot of students and to help bring about a few changes that students have wanted. I’m also a peer advisor, so I help students with their resumes, class schedules and finding jobs. I also worked at the U-M Museum of Natural History and had an internship with U-M’s Office of Campus Sustainability. And then for my capstone master’s project, I traveled to Hawaii to support energy sovereignty with our clients Ho‘āhu Energy Cooperative Moloka‘i and Sust‘āinable Moloka‘i.

My favorite SEAS memory was orientation at the U-M Bio Station. I was able to go twice, and each time was a great experience for me, but especially the first time I went. I met people who were like-minded and accepting of who I am, and it was my first knowledge that I had made the right decision to come here. It was a great opportunity to build relationships and connections.

Would you recommend SEAS to incoming students?

Yes, I would recommend SEAS because it allows you to take classes in other areas that you hadn’t thought about. You can take a law class or a business class, and the class spectrum is so large here that it helps you to understand that there are so many aspects to sustainability and there’s so much to learn about it. I don't think people here understand that this interdisciplinarity is not available everywhere else. There’s also a very supportive community here at SEAS. It’s not competitive. People lift you up, they don’t knock you down. SEAS also gives you a lot of resources, and I recommend taking advantage of them because something good could come of it.

What will you do after graduation?

I want to focus on higher education sustainability, and I will be going back to work at UAH’s sustainability department. There are so many skills I have now, and so many programs I am aware of now that I can take back with me to help UAH grow in sustainability and prepare for the future. I’m excited to go back there, because they’re the reason that I fell in love with sustainability.