After working on sustainability initiatives at the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe campus, current senior Izzy Sandoval found herself in a part of the world most people will never experience. The Arctic Village, situated next to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, is a preserved place where outsiders aren't allowed to simply show up; you must be invited. 

Izzy Sandoval is a biology major at the University of Nevada, Reno. When she started at the University her goal was to one day work in a research lab. After securing a research grant and doing laboratory work for a semester, she realized she wanted to make a bigger impact on the world, but she didn't know what that would look like. 

Everything changed for Sandoval when she enrolled in a sustainability certificate program at the Lake Tahoe campus. During this experience, she was challenged with the task of figuring out a sustainable change that could be made to the campus. With a background in science laboratories, this challenged her in a new way, as the sustainability efforts were centered in both science and people. 

“A lot of the class was about the people-side of sustainability. It’s really easy to focus on science, because science is undeniable, but understanding people, their needs, their economics and their culture, that’s the hard part,” Sandoval said.

During her time working on the sustainability certificate, she was able to connect with the professors, one being Brennan Lagasse, an assistant professor at the Tahoe campus, who focused on creating informed experiences for students combining education with real-world applications.

Through this connection she was invited to the Arctic Village in Alaska. The village is a Gwichʼin Athabascan community 290 miles south of Fairbanks, the closest town. 

"We had to take two flights just to get to the village. I got to ride in a bush plane for the first time. You have to fly into the village and you need special permission from the village elders. You have to be invited into the village because they're not governed by the state of Alaska," Sandoval said. "I had never been to Alaska before but the landscape out there, because it's almost virtually untouched by corporations, is gorgeous. It doesn't even feel real." 

During her time at the Arctic Village, she got to learn more about the land, get to know the people and witness how the community lives. In a town with no cars, running water or sewage system, locals live in log cabins using generators for power and four-wheelers to get around. 

Sandoval highlights how united the community was as they worked together to dig outhouses, collect water from their central water tank and support their neighbors in times of need, such as helping an elderly neighbor get to the nearby town. 

Sandoval was able to connect with the community by digging an outhouse, prepping meals and washing dishes. 

Getting closer to the locals led Sandoval on a tour to the refuge. The experience shifted her perspective on her role in science and inspired her to start a path in climate advocacy work to explain the scientific impact to everyday people.

"We passed melting permafrost. You can see the huge difference from where the bank used to sit to where it is now. It was really sad to see it in person because it's easy to think about it but, to see it is different. Permafrost itself is just ice under the soil so when that melts all of the soil and vegetation collapses, which affects the clarity of the river and the bank's stability," Sandoval said. "It was like a real wow moment of 'this is real and it's happening really quickly,' and the guide who was on the boat with us, one of the village elders, was explaining that only in the last couple years it got really bad." 

After witnessing the effects of climate change firsthand, her passion for environmental policy took off as she saw how policy and climate preservation directly affect communities. 

“There’s no shortage of scientists; there’s a shortage of people who can explain that science and turn it into something that matters," Sandoval said.

She realized she could use her background in biology to not only help with climate solutions but also educate others on the environmental changes happening around them. Now, as she prepares to graduate from the University this May, she hopes to join the campus again this fall to earn her master's degree in environmental policy and conservation.

“Advocacy work is going to be hard because you’re going to fail a lot before you succeed. Don’t take on conservation work thinking that if you can’t change something, you’ve failed,” Sandoval said.

Sandoval hopes to go back to the Arctic Village to further her research and continue learning about how she can help others learn about the climate.