Five Pomona students traveled to Washington, D.C. to participate in this year’s Rachel Carson Council (RCC) Advocacy Day, a hands-on program that trains and mobilizes young people to engage directly with federal lawmakers on environmental issues.
For three days in late March, Bridget Brodie ’27, Kitty Chadwyck-Healey ’27, Malu Estoducto ’27, Fiona Herbold ’26 and Isha Raheja ’27 joined students from 27 other U.S. colleges and universities to receive training in environmental policy and civic engagement. Students then met with senators, congressmembers and their staff to advocate for stronger environmental protections at the federal level.
Herbold, an environmental analysis major with a biology focus from Alexandria, Virginia, says the experience “made me feel much more comfortable with advocacy and connecting with high-level representatives.”
“It was empowering to engage in more direct and actionable efforts towards the issues I care about, which can often feel distant or impossible to tackle when discussing them in class or hearing about them in the news,” adds Estoducto, an economics and politics double major from Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Raheja, a public policy analysis (PPA) major with a concentration in environmental analysis, first learned about conservationist Rachel Carson and the RCC through her work to reform Pomona’s pesticide policy, supported by the President’s Sustainability Fund. She’s since become an RCC National Environmental Leadership Fellow and served as a Hill guide during this year’s Advocacy Day.
Representatives “are elected to represent the interests of both humans and nonhumans in their community,” Raheja says, “and I have a role as a responsible citizen and environmental advocate to make those interests known. To quote Rachel Carson, ‘Knowing what I do, there would be no future peace for me if I kept silent.’”
Over the course of the program, students spoke with 11 congressmembers, senators and their staff. In addition to staff from the offices of state Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, they met with Judy Chu, who represents California’s 28th Congressional district, where Pomona College is located.
Students advocated for legislation that would create a climate superfund, restrict federal funding for the wood pellet industry, inhibit the pesticide industry and promote organic agriculture.
“It was the first time some of these policies had reached the desks of the representatives we were speaking with, and those meetings felt particularly productive,” says Chadwyck-Healey, a politics major from London.
For Brodie, a philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) major with a politics concentration, climate change destruction is “an issue close to home,” they say. Their house in Upland, California—also in Chu’s district—was under evacuation warning during the 2024 Line and Bridge fires.
Although Pomona College students come from around the world, “Issues that are especially pressing in California—like drought, air quality and wildfires—affect all Pomona students,” Brodie says. “We deserve to be heard.”
Raheja, who hails from Claremont and Pomona, also drew on her personal experiences for conversations about pesticide legislation. She spoke to Chu about how local use of pesticides decimated the beehive she kept in high school—“a unique opportunity to speak directly with her about an issue that has been prevalent in our community,” she says.
Additionally, Raheja shared her hands-on experience with farming through Pomona’s Food, Land and the Environment course and urged Chu to cosponsor a bill that would lower barriers to entry for young farmers and farmers of color, as well as offset conventional farmers’ organic farming transition costs.
“As students and environmental advocates, we are not just speaking on behalf of our own interests when we engage in politics, but amplifying the voices of those who are not being listened to,” Raheja says.
Participating in the Advocacy Day program reaffirmed the students’ desire to vocally advocate for climate-positive policies.
“Uplifting your voice at the national level with this type of political engagement can further expand the impact of our values and policy demands, while also holding your representatives accountable,” says Estoducto.
“This type of engagement is important for college students to participate in, because young people have a vested interest in the future of the planet,” Herbold adds. “Policymakers know this, and for that reason, young voices go a long way.”