Samara Danielle Kleinfinger

Proudest Moment: My proudest moment at UW was finishing my 30-minute documentary that shared the voices and stories of the indigenous people on the Olympic Coast.

Thesis: Ocean Acidification and Native Tribes: Sharing Stories from the Olympic Coast

Throughout my time at UW, I've had so many great experiences. As a two-year member of the SURE-EH (Student Undergraduate Research Experience in Environmental Health) program, I have completed two year-long independent research projects under the guidance of my faculty mentor Dr. Tania Busch Isaksen. Last year, my project focused on improving food waste sorting and recycling at Kirkland Middle School in Washington. During this project, I had the opportunity to first design my own methodology to conduct a waste audit at the school and then was able to instruct and work alongside students to help complete the audit. After analyzing the data with the specific goal of identifying barriers to proper food waste disposal, I created a poster to be displayed in the school’s hallway and collaborated with the school's Green Team to guide future targeted recycling improvement efforts. Continuing with the topic of food waste but at a larger scale, my project with SURE-EH this year involved improving the food waste management system of local food trucks. The City of Bellevue, a community with a robust food truck culture, was looking to revise its current food truck permitting process and was interested in incorporating a sustainable waste management component. In collaboration with two graduate students, I performed a policy analysis to identify the best practices of successful existing sustainable food truck operations around the country. From there, my team and I created qualitative interview questions and surveys and conducted interviews with key stakeholders in Bellevue such as food truck operators, waste management contractors, food donation organizations, and customers. My findings from this research will then be used to inform key recommendations to the City of Bellevue in launching their new sustainable food truck permitting program. Outside of SURE-EH, I also performed research as part of my senior capstone project. I interned with Washington Sea Grant on a project that involved partnering with indigenous coastal communities to examine how ocean acidification is affecting key marine resources as well as overall tribal well-being on the Olympic Coast of Washington. Within the project, my primary role involved conducting and recording in-person interviews with key partners involved in the project such as scientists, oceanographers and tribal leaders which I then edited into a short documentary highlighting the voice of native tribes and the effect these climate-related ocean changes have on their well-being. From there, I then conducted my own research on the vulnerabilities of Olympic Coast’s native peoples to ocean acidification from a food security, economic, and cultural perspective. Besides research, I'm is also currently working with King County DNRP Solid Waste Division as a Recycling and Environmental Services intern. For the past year, I have collaborated and assisted on a multitude of different projects ranging from the Green Schools program, transfer station recycling, the Threadcycle campaign, and many more. In this position, I have completed tasks such as updating public webpages with climate change information, designing infographics and displays to be distributed to schools, analyzing landfill waste tonnage data for potential recycling opportunities, and produced a video demonstrating ways to reduce food waste. Lastly, I've been a member and officer with UW's LUX Film Production club for the past three years. With this club, I've had the fun experience of working with other student filmmakers to write, create, and edit short films each quarter. As one of the club's many screenwriters, I'm so grateful to have had the chance to write dozens of screenplays and improve my writing ability. UW and the range of experiences it has to offer has allowed me to explore my interests and have worthwhile experiences that have lead me to be both prepared and excited for my journey after graduation.