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Grossman Scholar Spotlight: Natasha Way

Aug 17, 2022

Hello, my name is Natasha Way...

and I am so thankful to be a Grossman Scholar!




Back in 2012, I’d done one year at McGill University as an undergraduate and I was feeling unsure about what I wanted to study or what work I’d like to do in the future. I felt like I was interested in a thousand things, but not passionate about any one thing. I decided to take a gap year and was accepted into an AmeriCorps program in Colorado. As part of AmeriCorps, we had to complete a certain number of volunteer hours with local organizations. This was my first introduction to VOC. I joined a few other corps members at a VOC trail building day and then attended a few more volunteer days and community events. After a year of volunteering and spending time outdoors in Colorado, it finally came to me. I had always loved the outdoors and had always been concerned about climate change and about our relationships with the natural world. I went back to McGill, got my bachelor’s in environmental health, and moved on to start a career doing environmental work.


It is now almost 10 years since those first days volunteering with VOC. I’ve worked in environmental education, as a guide, and in community sustainability. My career path has curved and twisted, but it’s always been based on my love for the outdoors and my passion for increasing accessibility, while improving environmental awareness and creating a healthier, more sustainable world.


After getting increasingly frustrated with the state of the environment and the lack of progress that our society and our communities were making to tackle climate change, I decided to return to school to get my Master’s in environmental policy. It was finally time to return to Colorado and to the place that had kindled my interest in this field back in 2012.


At CU Boulder, I’m learning about how we can use policy to reduce emissions, improve health, and protect ecosystems. I’m also learning about how all of these things can and must include a focus on equity, inclusion, and accessibility. If we protect a fish, but we don’t protect communities around the river, that fish won’t stay protected for long. When we talk about increasing access to EVs, we need to include efforts to provide charging infrastructure in low-income neighborhoods, even if private companies don’t think it’s worth their investment. When we conserve land for the public, we need to make sure to provide signage in other languages so that the whole public can use that outdoor space. At every step of the way, we need to ask ourselves who is being served from our work and what we can do to pull in new groups and spread the benefits of the outdoors and of a healthy environment throughout our communities and our society as a whole.


Thanks to the funding from the Grossman Scholarship, I am able to explore all of these issues and more. As a working student, I spend a lot of time trying to reduce my debt load from school. This is often time that could be spent at school events or volunteering in my community or visiting professors to dive deeper into exciting new concepts or ideas. By helping to pay my tuition, the Grossman Scholarship is helping to provide me with more freedom to focus on my schooling and to get the most I possibly can out of my opportunity to study with world-class professors. It is thanks to the Grossman Scholarship that I have the freedom to actually go above and beyond in my studies. I am so thankful for this opportunity and can not wait to spend another year learning and exploring in Colorado. 


Lia is one of six students to receive VOC's Grossman Scholarship for the 2022-23 school year. VOC offers two $10,000 and four $5,000 scholarships annually to eligible Colorado residents who have demonstrated a commitment to caring for our environment's natural resources and intend to pursue post-secondary education through an accredited environmental, natural resource, climate, or outdoor industry related education program in Colorado.


Applications for the 2023-24 school year will open in October 2022.


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