Kenna Talhelm is a current junior majoring in Environmental Sciences with a focus in Natural Resources Policy and Administration and a minor in Spanish. She has been a peer leader in the NC State Environmental First Year Program and a CaSA Sustainable Futures Fellow. Now, she is a student ambassador in the NC State College of Natural Resources, the Vice President of Communications for the Iota Chapter of the Epsilon Eta Environmental Honors Fraternity, a Leadership Team Intern for the Wake Country Economic Development Business Sustainability Roundtable, a Climate Leaders Program Scholar for the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology, & Science, and a Raleigh Chapter intern for the Citizen’s Climate Lobby.

If there is one word that describes how Kenna has approached her time at NC State, it’s engagement. 

Over the past three years, Kenna has joined sustainability efforts across campus, taken coursework relating to sustainability, worked internships in the field, and distinguished herself as someone who will make an impact in our environmental future. 

“The more I learn about sustainability, the more I want to be involved with it,” she says. 

Honing Her Interests

Through her involvements, Kenna has built her résumé around her interest in urban planning and sustainable transportation. 

“Once I got here, I just kind of threw myself at anything environmental and very quickly learned that sustainability is what I want to do through classes like the Sustainable Cities and Communities course,” she said. This course began a domino effect for Kenna, setting her on the path that led to her work with CaSA. 

After a Fall Break trip to Boston to learn about walkable cities with the Sustainable Cities and Communities course, Kenna refined her passion within conservation and environmental sciences.

“That trip got me really into the concept of urban design and urban planning that I hadn’t thought about before; but also in transportation, which eventually led me to doing the Sustainable Futures Fellows,” she said. 

Joining the CaSA Sustainable Futures Fellows program and the Climate Leaders Program allowed Kenna to hone her interest in sustainable transportation and develop leadership skills within sustainability. 

“The more I learn about sustainability, the more I want to be involved with it”
– Kenna Talhelm

A Lifelong Focus

Although Kenna’s passion for sustainability has grown throughout her time at NC State, her interests in the environment and conservation began before she joined the Wolfpack. In high school, Kenna worked on projects related to stormwater systems, pollution, and environmental education. 

Through CaSA and NC State, though, Kenna has learned a much more pointed definition of sustainability. To Kenna, sustainability is an interdisciplinary and connected idea that we can see everywhere around us. 

“I think there’s a lot of connectivity. If you have sustainable transportation, then it helps with healthcare, which helps make the healthcare system more sustainable, which helps with mental health. [Sustainable transportation also] helps with air pollution, which helps with environmental sustainability,” she said. 

For Kenna, the interdisciplinarity of sustainability is what makes it so unique and accessible for everyone.

“I think sustainability can really be incorporated into every aspect of life,” Kenna said. “Sustainability doesn’t have to necessarily be hard. It’s not an all or nothing thing. Recognizing what the opportunities are for implementing sustainability in your life and focusing on reducing [consumption]… would  help with our sustainability economically and environmentally.”

Looking forward, Kenna hopes to work within urban planning upon graduation, helping to create more sustainable cities and business models.