Winds of Change 2020 Participant Profiles

One of the things that stands out about Britta is how articulate she is. Her mind is agile, her responses are considered and clear. The daughter of a Presbyterian minister and a kindergarten teacher, she spoke of how she grew up with extended dinner time conversations, where the family would argue for hours about the meaning of capitalism or some other big topic. This ongoing practice in the art of debate shows in Britta’s continued engagement with learning and debating significant issues and concepts across a wide knowledge terrain.

Britta’s environmental interest started at a young age. Born in Christchurch, the family moved to Dunedin when Britta was five years old, where they lived 200 metres from St Kilda beach. As a child, she would be up at 6 am, regardless of the weather, to run from her home to the beach for a swim. She still loves swimming at every opportunity and lists any ocean or beach amongst her favourite places. As well as being close to the beach, the house that Britta grew up in was right next to sea level, the back yard being within 25 cm of the water table, so sea level rise became a very real concern.

When she was around 10 years old, a school project on the greenhouse effect sparked Britta’s interest in the science of climate change. She couldn’t get over ‘how crazy it was that tiny humans could produce something that was changing the world in ways we couldn’t see.’ For Britta and her family, awareness and action around climate change impacts continued to grow. Her older sister was an activist and involved in the early 350.org actions. Both parents are now vegan and cycle everywhere.

Britta has engaged with the impacts of human activity on the environment throughout her academic career. She has completed two undergraduate degrees, the first in politics, philosophy and economics, and the second in physics. The two reflect her belief that science is useful but that to make change, more is required.

Aside from her father and family, two academics from the University of Otago have had a big impact on Britta — political philosopher Lisa Ellis, for her work in climate change and justice issues, and Janet Stephenson from the Centre for Sustainability for her interdisciplinary collaboration. Winds of Change has left its mark too, with Britta questioning things she had taken for granted about approaching sustainability. Hearing about the work that other participants are doing on the ground in specific areas has been inspirational and has ‘broken me out of a kind of sustainability and left-wing political bubble that I’ve been in mentally,’ she says.

After completing her honours year in philosophy, Britta’s vision is to work with people to effect change. This may be around science communication in the context of government and policy. She is interested in how policy implementers understand science, the complexities of knowledge production processes, and how these are incorporated into policies and regulations that affect the lives of people.

Richard was born in the little fishing town of Boyeruca, which lies between Region del Maule and Region del Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins on the coast in the middle of Chile. He completed his primary and secondary schooling in public school, saying that it was to a ‘very bad level… the public education in Chile is not really good,’ before commencing work as a fisherman, with his father.

He worked with his father for about four years and during that time became a syndicate leader. He had no intention of studying then but was engaged with developing ideas and projects to improve the town’s livelihood. He was instrumental in getting governmental funding for the syndicate to install oyster farms, providing the opportunity for extra income for the town and changing the traditional focus on catching fish and harvesting certain shellfish.

His interest in sustainability can be traced back to being a fisherman, noticing changes and scarcity in fish populations. This prompted his decision to study aquaculture, although his initial interest was in production, not sustainability. The sustainability focus came in a waking dreamlike state, in which he experienced a total shift in perception. This experience prompted him to adopt a vegetarian diet and make the decision to learn about, and to promote, environmental sustainability.

In 2011, Richard received a Chilean Government scholarship to complete a Vocational Graduate Diploma of Aquaculture Hatchery Management in Perth, Australia, although that was difficult at first as there had been no opportunity for him to learn English during his public schooling in Chile. As well as studying live diets in the feeding of fish larvae, this course introduced Richard to aquaponics, understanding the functioning of a system of mutualism as a small-scale ecosystem. He says that this new area of study was influential, ‘its impact having a good effect on my perception of the world.’ Richard had left his girlfriend behind in Chile when he went to Australia, but upon his return, they married and soon afterwards had a son, Dante. Both Richard and his wife had a dream to come to New Zealand.

Richard started a Master of Environmental Science in Chile but found it difficult to order his ideas in a forum where he felt that both his classmates and teachers had a very different vision in relation to the environment. To help clarify his thinking and get ideas for his thesis topic, he put his master’s on hold and came to New Zealand with his wife and son, to do a Diploma in Sustainability at Otago Polytechnic, in order to ‘find more proof of the problem and solutions.’

It was through his lecturer at Otago Polytechnic that he found out about Winds of Change, which he says, ‘has a strong vision,’ although working in a geographically dispersed group had its challenges. In New Zealand, Richard has found a much better fit for his vision of sustainability, which ‘starts with myself,’ he says. He wants to connect sustainability with philosophy, although he sees that as a personal journey. In the meantime, his diploma is looking at systems of food production.

The future is unclear at this stage. Civil unrest and violence, and the deeply entrenched inequalities of the capitalist system in Chile make him wary. He will return to finish his master’s but neither he nor his wife are certain that Chile is the place they want to be long-term.

Born in Singapore, Lauren’s family arrived in New Zealand when she was two years old. Due to her father’s work, the family moved frequently, spending time in different places. Most of Lauren’s schooling was completed in Wellington and her undergraduate degree at the University of Otago.

Lauren’s connection with the environment was one that developed through lived experience. Her family engaged in a range of outdoor activities, tramping, camping, and being close to nature. It was this proximity to nature that made Lauren contemplate ‘how precious the environment is and how lucky we are.’

Lauren completed a Bachelor of Physical Education at Otago. She enjoyed her study but reflects that high schools tend to promote certain options and pathways for tertiary study, and that she didn’t know the variety of things that could be studied at tertiary level as a young school-leaver.

During her undergraduate years, Lauren was involved in many groups in a leadership capacity. These roles enhanced her skills and provided the ‘opportunity to connect with a variety of people and to learn from the collective pool of knowledge.’

A lecturer of a paper on Environment and Society was a key influence for Lauren in her early studies. She describes the content of the paper as ‘on the cusp of sociology, physical education, and environmental sciences.’ It spoke to her already strong interest in community and nature. The passion that the lecturer brought to teaching, his appreciation of different learning styles, and the ways in which he brought content to life, were inspirational for her.

This lived experience approach is something that Lauren loves in her current Master of Sustainable Development Goals through Massey University. A new course, Lauren is in the first cohort, and appreciates how the course draws from many different disciplines — urban planning, agriculture, food science, international development — giving her the opportunity to explore at disciplinary level and then to step back and consider how these fit together.

The ability to delve into different fields is something Lauren has appreciated in Winds of Change. She has valued engaging with different areas of knowledge and technologies and has learned a lot from others. She is very attuned to the cultural 10 challenges of working across different locations and languages, reflecting that even if ‘you think you know how to deal with it,’ there are nuances in language and in working with people you haven’t met. Her interest in Latin America has developed ‘so much more’ and she appreciates how special language is, which has resulted in her continued use of Duolingo to learn Spanish.

Lauren hopes to go to Rarotonga to work on a Volunteer Services Abroad project in 2021, to continue developing cross-cultural skills. She is excited about the prospect of ‘learning about things related to development theory in real life,’ and gaining practical experience.

Longer term, it will be one or more of the ‘many challenges that humanity faces’ that Lauren will engage with, whether that is to do with the environment or other societal issues.

Jenny has been interested in the environment for as long as she can remember. She was born in Gisborne, an area rich in Māori culture. When she was eight, the family moved to Reefton, a small town on the West Coast of the South Island, before moving to Dunedin when Jenny was 13.

The child of older parents, Jenny’s family didn’t tend to do outdoor pursuits together, but they were environmentally aware, and Jenny was brought up to ‘wonder, and to respect the environment in its diversity, not to think that humanity is better than anything else,’ she says.

It was at university that Jenny developed her love of hiking and the outdoors. Although she started her undergraduate studies in zoology, she ‘clicked’ with geology more and loved the field trips — seeing more wildlife within natural environments on these field trips than she had been exposed to through zoology. Of the Winds of Change field trip, she says, ‘it was one of the best I’ve ever been on.’

Another highlight of Winds of Change for Jenny was being inspired by ‘so many people who are motivated towards the same direction but coming from different places.’ She knew nothing about Chile before the programme and would love to go to Chile now, to meet her Chilean-based group member and to consolidate what she has learned from the Chilean participants by seeing and experiencing their culture and environment for herself.

After graduating, Jenny spent some years as an exploration geologist in Australia and as a geologist in New Zealand before coming to the realisation that she wanted a change in career. She took a break to walk Te Araroa, the 3000 km route from Cape Reinga to Bluff, before going to Japan to teach English.

During this time, she became disheartened by the political undermining of the global response to climate change and associated scientific research and started to question what she could do to help the situation. She came back to science, but from a different angle. She considered how some people don’t understand or don’t trust science. She realised that being involved in the communication of science to wider audiences, so that they could be more empowered and informed, was something she was interested in doing. This saw Jenny return to Otago to complete a Diploma in Science Communication in 2020.

In the future, she wants to find a job where she ‘will be of most use, happy, and effective,’ in helping establish sustainable societies that exist in harmony with their environment, whilst also adapting to ongoing climate and environmental change. While changing career in her mid-thirties is a ‘slightly scary’ experience, she says, ‘if you want to turn your life upside down, do a different job, or whatever, just do it… don’t get locked into something if it’s not what you want to do or contribute to. Go find something else!’

William, who shares the name William Henriquez with his father, was born in San Bernardo, a small city south of Santiago. He lived all his life there, with his parents, and one sister. He attended public and semi-public schools in San Bernardo before going to study at the Universidad de Chile in Santiago.

Growing up from early childhood, William had always been fascinated by the natural environment. He loved going to the countryside, or to the beach, with his parents, where he would immerse himself in observing plants, insects, and rocks. His parents remember that he was always more interested in being by himself looking at nature than in playing with other children.

From a young age, he kept a garden with plants and vegetables. When he was about 13 or 14 years old, someone gave him a book on biology and he says, ‘I started reading about biology and, I love it. I love it! So, I decided to study biology.’ First in family to go to college, that book — which he still has — was the single biggest influence in William’s academic direction.

Arriving at paleoclimatology was almost accidental. In his first year at university, William tried to secure a position in a lab studying cancer but there was no space available. Through a paper on the biology of plants, he was offered a space by a professor to work with plants, and William found out that he was using plants to study climate. He enjoyed this perspective and it launched him on his paleoclimatology career path. Having completed an undergraduate degree and a Master of Biology, William is now finishing a PhD in Geology at Victoria University of Wellington.

An animal lover, William’s family have always had dogs, including a very special poodle, Toby, who lived with the family for 16 years. Since he has been away, the family have gained another eight large dogs, having taken in a stray without realising she was pregnant. Although William had little spare time when writing his thesis, he is beginning to find time again to swim and dance, two of his favourite activities.

Winds of Change has given William a different perspective on climate change. He enjoyed the opportunity to interview people and contribute to making a film for the group assignment, both things he had no prior experience with. More importantly, as a paleoclimatologist, he hadn’t focused on solutions before, so the realisation that it is ‘not just about what is going to happen but what we can do to prevent it,’ was a significant shift for him.

William’s dream has always been to work in one of the top universities in Chile. When he finishes his PhD in New Zealand, he has a postdoctoral position in the Universidad de Chile. Due to COVID-19, he is likely to commence this online before returning to Chile, but he is one step closer to his dream of researching and teaching in this university.

Speaking with Danilo, the words global citizen come to mind. Born in Austria, Danilo’s grandparents were from Italy and Spain but moved to Chile as refugees after World War II. Danilo’s parents returned to Europe as refugees during the military dictatorship in Chile, coming back to Chile when Danilo was four years old and settling in Santiago. Danilo is currently based in New Zealand, studying at Auckland University of Technology but his siblings are scattered around the world, with brothers in Chile, Canada, and Sweden, and a sister in Austria.

Danilo likes to introduce himself as a cyclist because it tells a lot about his mindset, ‘I’m not afraid of long-term challenges,’ he says. As he reveals more about himself, this becomes evident. Danilo studied biotechnology engineering before going on to complete a Master of Chemical Engineering. He wanted to make a difference in mining, to make it less damaging, but looking back on his time with mining he describes it as ‘hitting a wall for ten years.’ He talks about the frustration of trying to get support for the use of bacteria rather than sulphuric acid in mining, where management is replaced every few years and therefore has a short-term, high-profit focus, favouring the more damaging use of acid as a faster alternative to biochemical methods.

Danilo’s not sure when he became interested in sustainability but before he could even read, he wanted to be an ecologist because of a book about an ecologist that he would get his mother to read to him, over and over. He even asked his mother to make oatmeal for breakfast because that is what the ecologist in the book ate for breakfast!

A bioprocess engineer, Danilo works from a process perspective, using bacteria and electricity. In addition to his studies, he and his business partner are working on long-term renewable energy storage solutions on commercial and domestic scales. Strongly principled, Danilo defends their decision to keep the domestic device affordable, to make profit from companies, not people.

Danilo describes Winds of Change as a challenging experience, ‘working with people you don’t know, with different approaches, from far away,’ but recognises that we will potentially need to become more proficient in these new ways of working in the future.

In the immediate future, Danilo will continue to develop the business. Beyond that, he plans to move elsewhere, to Austria or Quebec, or perhaps to the Netherlands or Belgium, which have great cycling appeal. Wherever he ends up, one gets the sense that he will move steadily and purposefully toward his vision of enhancing the quality of life for people and planet.

Daniel is currently completing a Master of Science in Marine Biology at Victoria University of Wellington.

Arriving just two weeks before New Zealand went into lockdown in 2020 was a difficult experience for Daniel, who missed his family very much, especially since there was little time to get settled or meet people before lockdown. Now, he has a great network of friends, including the new friends and colleagues he has met through Winds of Change.

Born in Viña del Mar and raised in Valparaiso, Daniel’s interest in ecology and environmental issues developed in high school. A biology teacher with a wide-ranging knowledge of biology and general science motivated Daniel’s interest in biology and, importantly, in creative solutions in relation to biology. This solution focused perspective has remained with Daniel, who has a keen interest in developing strategies for sustainable fisheries. Like New Zealand, Chile has a long coast, and the economy is sustained by natural resources.

Although spare time is in short supply, Daniel likes to train at the gym, swim, and kickbox, as well as read and go to the cinema. Well-travelled, Daniel’s work as a biologist has taken him to Barcelona, London, San Francisco, and Dunedin. He has also visited Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Cuba. He would love to go back to Barcelona again, to walk the streets and take in the beautiful architecture.

Marine biology was an accidental, but significant, direction change for Daniel. During his undergraduate study, an ecology professor asked if he would be interested in working in different ecological topics. ‘One of her projects at that time was a population census of sea lions and seals on the coast of Chile,’ he recalls, ‘so I began to dip into marine biology, and I fell in love with it.’

An enduring connection with marine mammals was formed and future studies may explore issues and interactions between marine mammals and fisheries, with a focus on policy and management. His favourite marine mammal? The Blue Whale, one of which Daniel saw in northern Chile. The biggest animal living on earth, he describes seeing one, ‘It was a shock. Amazing!’

His long-term plans including completing a PhD but, in the short term, he hopes to gain some professional experience in New Zealand before embarking on doctoral studies.

Pamela was born in Copiapó, which is within the Atacama Desert, the driest place in the world. Once a year, if there’s enough winter rain, spring transforms the desert into a beautiful vista of colour, a sea of wildflowers.

The main industry in Copiapó is mining — copper, lithium, salt and, in the past, gold. Pamela studied a technical qualification in mining in Copiapó before moving to Valparaíso to study chemistry, ‘because I love to make things in the laboratory!’ she says.

Pamela’s interest in the environment and climate change was sparked several years ago, following her work for a large Canadian laboratory, ALS. She was working as a client services and quality control representative for the company and became involved in highlighting the sustainability work the laboratory was doing. Recognising that for Chile, this work with the environment was relatively new, Pamela started questioning the social dimension of experience through her years working for the mining industry. ‘Most people think that if you are recycling you are looking after the environment, but how can you ask someone to recycle if that person has their own, significant, problems?’

She has witnessed first-hand the dual social and environmental impacts of mining. ‘You have to be aware and conscious of the people,’ she says. ‘We think most things can be solved with money but that is not the solution.’ Although mining is a huge source of employment, it takes people away from their families on a regular basis, forcing them to miss out on being together for important events, and contributing to family fragmentation, with a very high divorce rate. There are other corollaries as well, alcoholism, drugs, and violence.

It was this conundrum that brought Pamela to the Otago Polytechnic to study a Diploma in Sustainable Development in 2019. A surfer, she loved living in St Kilda while she was in Dunedin, just a few minutes from the ocean. Her research project combined her passion for sustainability with improving the quality of life for miners and their families.

For some years, Pamela has been associated with the NGO Women in Mining, originally formed in the UK. However, the focus for this is engaging women professionally in mining, a traditionally male-dominated work environment. For Pamela, this is not enough. She comes back to a vision of improving quality of life for mining families but, as she says, ‘there are no projects in Chile relating to this but I’m sure I can relate my career to contribute to society in a sustainable way.’

Returning home to Chile in 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging, although having Pamela home for the first time in three years has been a huge relief for her family, especially her mother and sister. Pamela continues to do some research related to sustainability and climate change. She seriously loves sustainability — you can hear it in her voice — and would like to work on environmental or social initiatives, especially with communities and minorities.

Winds of Change has been a welcome engagement for Pamela, who has been able to flex both her love of science and her passion for humanity within the programme.

Greg was born in Nelspruit, South Africa, to an English father and a South African mother. The family moved to New Zealand when Greg was nine years old, initially settling in the small South Island town of Gore, before moving up to the Christchurch region. New Zealand was seen as a more secure environment that would provide better opportunities for Greg and his two sisters.

Although he feels ‘more Kiwi than South African’ now, for some time after moving to New Zealand at age nine, Greg felt that he didn’t really belong and, as the years went by, no longer felt that South Africa was home either.

Greg’s connection with the environment goes back to childhood. Biology and living things had always interested him. Growing up on a farm, surrounded by animals and plants, stimulated his thinking about ‘living in the environment, how everything connects together.’

Attending Ashburton Borough School, the first school in the South Island to be recognised as a Green Gold Enviro school, was also influential. Having initially planned to study biology at university, Greg decided to check out the environmental programme offered by the University of Canterbury instead, moving towards physical environmental science. He completed honours in environmental science in 2020 and is currently planning to continue with a Master of Science.

Like most of the participants in Winds of Change, Greg commented that one of the highlights was ‘meeting a whole bunch of people from different backgrounds and knowing how all of the backgrounds come towards trying to achieve the same thing.’ He also appreciated working on his group project on geothermal energy, which was an opportunity to learn about something in a field that he has not had much engagement with before.

Not surprisingly, given his life-long interest in living things, the place Greg would most like to visit in the world is the Galápagos Islands. Within New Zealand, he enjoys the Beech forests of Fiordland. ‘Although I’ve done a bit of travelling around, it’s not something you get to see very often,’ he says.

For Greg, one of the key global issues is water. He hopes to have the opportunity to work in countries where he can make a meaningful contribution to improving access to clean water. He is open to what the future might hold, but certain that he wants his future work to have positive impacts.

Adele was born and raised in Wellington. The outdoors has always been an important part of her life. As a teenager, she was taken on most of New Zealand’s Great Walks by her father, including the Heaphy, Kepler, Milford and Abel Tasman tracks. At seven years of age, she began playing competitive football, which she still plays now, and was proud to be Captain of the First XI Football team in her final year of high school.

Because she spent so much time in nature, Adele has always felt connected to the environment, although that connection was initially focused on leisure and enjoying the outdoors. It was travelling for a year before starting university studies that prompted her to look at the environment, and our relationship with it, from a different perspective. She describes walking along a bay in Cardiff, Wales, as she would in Wellington, except that in Cardiff the ‘whole waterfront and ocean had all this trash in it.’ In the UK, she was shocked that all vegetables and fruits in the supermarket were plastic-wrapped.

Observations and experiences during that year of travel inspired Adele to study tourism on her return, further developing her interest in sustainable development and protecting and preserving the environment. Living in alignment with these principles is important to Adele. An animal-lover, lambs are one of her favourite animals and this, as well as the impact on the environment of meat consumption, contributed to Adele’s decision to adopt a vegetarian diet. She continues to learn and challenge herself to make other lifestyle changes, such as reducing single-purpose purchases, volunteering for clean-ups, and generally reducing her environmental footprint.

The opportunity to participate in a sustainable development trip to Brazil in 2020 continued this trajectory of sustainability engagement. The trip, which included some time working with an Amazonian community in Tumbira, near Manaus, ‘was incredible, just amazing, like nothing I’d ever done before,’ she says.

Aside from ‘classic nature-loving people like David Attenborough,’ it has been life experiences, ‘a collection of lots of smaller things,’ that have led Adele to where she is now, having finished her Master of Tourism Management in 2020. She would love to work with the Department of Conservation, focusing on sustainability in the tourism sector. The United Nations would ‘be pretty cool too!’ she says.

Unlike most of the other Winds of Change participants, Adele hadn’t studied science since high school, but found the programme amazing and was inspired by the people she met, never imagining that she ‘could have so much in common with all these PhD science people.’ It also broadened her understanding of the opportunities to engage with sustainability in all sectors, which is of tangible value as she contemplates her post-master’s career.

Paula was born in Santiago, Chile, to a Belgian mother who was raised in Canada, and a father of Palestinian descent. The food at home was very different, an amalgam of Canadian and Belgian, and it wasn’t until Paula came to New Zealand that she learned to cook Chilean food, because she missed it.

She didn’t particularly enjoy growing up in Santiago, not being a fan of big cities, where the ‘human aspect and the connection with nature is lost.’ She decided to move away and study tourism, thinking that she would be in a state of permanent holiday for the rest of her life, but realising very quickly that she was ‘working while everyone else holidayed!’

She traces her connection with nature to her childhood and many trips away camping with the scouts. This influenced her decision to study ecotourism. During her ecotourism studies she engaged with many different disciplines, including anthropology, ecology, marine ecosystems, terrestrial ecosystems, and human geography. She also gained certification in mountaineering, diving and other activities. Following graduation, she worked as a mountain guide in Chile, specialising in mountain horseback riding.

Paula decided to have a working holiday in New Zealand because it, along with Costa Rica, was constantly referred to by her ecotourism lecturers as an exemplar. However, she didn’t end up working in tourism, but mostly in hospitality. She had a brief stint working at the Fiordland Visitor Centre, where she got to hold a shorttailed bat for measurement and release a Mōhua, a rare forest bird, both of which she describes as ‘amazing’ experiences.

She is now completing a Master of Forestry Science at the University of Canterbury, looking at carbon sequestration rates and native regeneration. She has enjoyed the Winds of Change programme and the science communication perspective that has been present throughout and hopes to continue her involvement in the network in future.

The foreseeable future is here in New Zealand, which has ‘progressively become home, with time.’ It’s where Paula’s son was born, and it is where she wants to be. She does not feel that Chile is home necessarily, being the daughter of parents who came from elsewhere. Her mother is a role model, ‘a very independent, strong woman, who’s lived as a foreigner in a country,’ as are her sisters, one of whom is in England, while the other is completing a master's degree in Spain.

A job is next on the agenda, but the long-term vision is having some land for her son and being able to ‘restore that land through forest, through engaging with people.’

Paula was born and raised in Colombia, where her family remain. Her undergraduate degree was in biological engineering but, as well as science, Paula has a deep concern for people. It is important to her that she does something that helps both the environment and people. ‘The world could pass through all these issues and then recover, but the people don’t,’ she says.

Paula is currently living in Concepción, which she loves because it is only ten minutes’ walk to the ocean, it’s sunny, friendly, and everything — including the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, where she is completing a Master of Marine Ecology — is easily accessible.

Gender inequality in science motivated Paula to volunteer in Brazil after completing her undergraduate degree. There, she worked with students on sustainability and climate change issues, teaching children and adolescents in public schools. Her approach was to help them understand the problems through doing something, rather than just talking. Students found themselves cultivating vegetables within the school grounds, making filters for drinkable water, and learning through other hands-on activities.

With her vision of empowering girls in science, it comes as no surprise that Paula’s mum, a civil engineer, is Paula’s hero. ‘She is the best woman I ever knew in my life. She taught me all the time to be an example, to my siblings and other girls around the world… She’s a dreamer, same as me. I love her so much.’

Winds of Change has provided an opportunity for Paula to understand what is happening in New Zealand and how scientists in New Zealand approach solution-making. She has enjoyed meeting other participants on the programme from different fields. Since she was 15, Paula wanted to be a marine biologist but, growing up far from the coast, it was her dream one day to come to Australia or New Zealand to research marine biology.

Paula’s master’s degree has included research on some of the most pristine fjords in Patagonia to gain a better understanding of how climate change is affecting seemingly undisturbed areas. The loss of biodiversity around the world and stemming the tide that is negatively ‘affecting all fauna and species globally,’ is something that she is driven by.

When asked about the future, she says, ‘this is the beginning.’ She wants to keep going, to undertake a PhD, and to continue to research the loss of biodiversity around the world.

Andrea credits being born in Valdivia, with its rich nature and rain forests, for her love of the natural environment. It wasn’t until she started her university studies that she connected this love of nature with active engagement with the issues of climate change.

Originally studying industrial engineering at the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (UAI), she changed her focus to energy and the environment, being more interested in science than business and economy. When she exclaims, ‘I love science!’ you know that she really does. It is in her voice, warm and enthusiastic, as she says how much she enjoys her studies and the opportunities available to her.

The more Andrea learned about the impacts of climate change, the more she wanted to do something tangible, to make a positive impact. Realising that the university had a long way to go in raising awareness and developing strategies to address climate change impacts, Andrea founded BioHuella UAI. This group is dedicated to making the university more sustainable. To begin with, the group developed projects in the key areas of waste management, energy efficiency and environmental education. Their approach is a collaborative one. They work with students and staff to gain insight into their views on recycling and sustainability, and then identify gaps or potential directions for making meaningful change together.

When she saw an email about Winds of Change, Andrea was excited, although she never expected to be accepted. She has enjoyed the programme and the dual learning across both countries, identifying links and potentials between Chile and New Zealand.

When Andrea lives at home, she lives with her extended family, including nieces and nephews. Her family, and particularly her mother, have had a huge influence on her. She describes her mother as being ‘energetic, always doing something,’ which seems like a reflection of Andrea herself, who is effervescent and brings a sense of continual movement to the conversation. Most of her spare time is spent on BioHuella and the organisations she is engaged with, where she loves to design posters and educational materials, and develop engaging interventions. This work she considers to be her hobby.

Other influences on Andrea have included teachers, and her friend Renato Rojas whom she credits as starting her life in climate change. Renato has gone on to create the Sustainability Office at UAI and continues to be a guide on the journey.

In the future, Andrea would like to travel to do a master’s degree somewhere else in the world. Having never lived by herself and having lived most of her life in Viña del Mar, she would love to travel to Europe to study solutions for climate change, energy, and waste management, that could be applied within Chile.

Rodrigo was born in Iquique, in the far north of Chile, but moved to Santiago with his family when he was five years old. He describes his family as a ‘humble’ family. They moved to Santiago for his father’s work in construction, and to find better opportunities for the family.

He attended public school in Santiago and was fortunate to have good teachers there. Rodrigo enjoyed school and especially loved the library, where he spent much of his time. His interest in environmental sustainability came to the forefront in the first year of his undergraduate study in geography.

At that time, he realised ‘how the environment is really, really important and how it can determine so much.’ This was around 2006 to 2007, when people had become very concerned about climate change and, because there were no specific strategies to address climate change, there was a lot of concern and discussion about ‘how to adapt, especially from a geographical point of view.’

Rodrigo is currently working on a PhD in disaster risk and resilience through the University of Canterbury. This builds on his previous work with the National Volcano-monitoring Network in Sergageomin (Chile), where he worked in volcanic risk assessment and risk assessment strategies.

Aside from the physical behaviour of volcanoes, it is the human impact, the impact on communities and how best to protect them, that is at the heart of his current research.

In 2016, while attending a conference in Chile, Rodrigo met some academics who were researching silicic eruptions. They had a great conversation and asked Rodrigo to work with them on a research project and publication. Later, they invited him to Canterbury for two weeks and, eventually, from the initial project and subsequent meetings, a PhD opportunity for Rodrigo developed.

He returned to New Zealand in October 2019 to start his research.

About leaving Santiago on October 18th, the day the social unrest in Chile started, he says, ‘I drove with my parents to the airport. Usually that takes 20 minutes. It took two and a half hours, avoiding demonstrators, avoiding barricades, avoiding the police. It was totally crazy, and it was really emotional for me to leave the country at that moment… it was really intense. When I came here, I was really focused on what was going on in Chile.’

He has loved Winds of Change, and especially working with his group on the topic of wildfires. He is enthusiastic about the process of working together to come up with the topic, refining that topic, and deciding on the best way to communicate their research.

In terms of influences, the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption in Chile in 2011 was significant for Rodrigo. Before that, he had considered extreme events to be immediate, with immediate effects. But in this case, the event was ongoing, disrupting people’s lives in different ways, and for longer. That, and the eight years 35 he spent working with the National Volcano-monitoring Network have shaped the direction he has taken with study and career.

He is drawn to working with developing countries ‘that may not have the opportunity to develop their own networks or scientific collaborations,' and so his professional dream is to work in the area of disaster risk reduction with the United Nations. Although he is in no hurry to leave New Zealand, he would like to live and work in Geneva in the future.

Pía was born in Valparaíso, Chile, but lived in many different places because of her father’s navy career. She has lived in Punta Arenas, in the south, which was ‘an amazing experience,’ especially in summer when night comes for only three hours. She has also lived in Santiago and spent two and a half years in Melbourne, Australia, where she completed a Master of Law.

Pía has recently moved to Futaleufú, Patagonia, making the most of the ability to work remotely that COVID-19 has created. As well as working for the government full-time in the Service of Environmental Impact Assessment, she has established a non-profit organisation, the Ngenko Foundation — alluding to the spirit protector of water for the Mapuche people — which focuses on environmental education and awareness of access to, and protection of, water.

She has always felt connected to nature, having enjoyed camping with her family on a regular basis from when she was six months old, and loving the outdoors, sports, and trekking. The environment wasn’t her initial professional focus when studying law. She originally ‘wanted to put people in jail,’ she says ruefully, 'not an approach I can relate to at all now. So negative!’

She chose to do her thesis on rules to impose environmental sanctions because she was interested in reviewing the outcomes of the 2010 Chilean reforms that had established the Ministry of the Environment, the Superintendency, and the Service of Environmental Impact Assessment. That was when she became passionate about environmental law.

While Pía has enjoyed Winds of Change, as with the other Chilean based participants, maintaining a solid sense of connection was made difficult by being in another country, a different time zone, and engaging solely via online communication. Her group’s project, on wetland restoration, was a perfect synergy for the two countries, with Chile having recently passed a new Urban Wetland Law and much work being done to promote wetland restoration in New Zealand.

For the future, Pía would like to move towards working fulltime for the Ngenko Foundation. Ensuring that community is actively involved in legislation that impacts on their environment is something Pía sees as vital, rather than a topdown imposition of law. The projects she is currently working on with Ngenko focus on engaging community at different levels, education, and enhancing public participation mechanisms.

Pía is also committed to raising awareness of the need to change the way we live and how we protect the environment. Education plays a key role in this. As she says, ‘I think the younger generation that is more aware of the environment, of the need to live a healthy life, to be more connected with nature… that’s going to be the salvation, the only way we can live in harmony for many, many years as humans on this earth.’