Mollie Sioux James

Environmental Science & Studies (Environmental Science)

Mollie emerged as one of our top students in Environmental Science and Studies during her first year at Stetson through both her excellent work in her classes and her desire to get involved in additional learning experiences beyond the classroom. Through her job at Beach Squad, she used retail sales in a beachside community as a way to expand and promote environmental awareness through both environmentally responsible products and sponsored beach clean‐ups. Her interests in urban planning and the environmental and social benefits of low impact development blossomed while she worked as an intern for the Institute for Water and Environmental Resilience, where she monitored the functioning of the green stormwater infrastructure elements there. With a knack for using Geographic Information Systems, which is a highly technical skill set for digital mapping and spatial analysis, she worked on grant‐funded projects with the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council on climate resilience and stormwater mitigation. For her senior project she evaluated the efficacy of vertical rain gardens for stormwater management, which is one of many tools in the green stormwater infrastructure tool kit. She plans to pursue a career in urban planning.