Amber Hwang

Amber Hwang is a senior honors student studying Environmental Studies and English with a minor in Geographic Information Science. Her internship with Green Our Planet this past year helped her discover the joy and justice in empowering students to grow their own food as she mapped the impact of their school garden and hydroponic programs. Currently, she works as a research assistant investigating petro-pedagogy in K-12 schools across the United States. She previously worked with UConn NRCA as an Eco-Digital Storytellers Mentor and researched vacant lot greening interventions and blight ordinances’ impact on native meadow lawns in the Sustainable Urban Planning and Ecology Research lab. In the past year, she revitalized the UConn Student Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society as President and helped transform The Green Garden into a club that partners with the Botanical Conservatory to host events addressing mental health and climate change through a community garden. She also serves as a session director for Ecoposium and raises awareness and funds to support children facing humanitarian crises around the world through UConn’s chapter of UNICEF. Volunteering with the Cherokee Nation on an Alternative Break to Oklahoma was a formative experience, and bringing her Taiwanese background to intersectional environmentalism, she aspires to continue advocating for Indigenous Peoples’ rights and environmental justice while giving back to communities. Attending the COP31 conference in Türkiye, Amber is excited to explore how the climate negotiations engage with the Just Transition framework to shift away from extractivism toward a regenerative economy. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, local theatre, and yoga.