2018-29 Inaugural Green Fellows
Alumni established the Green Fellowship in 2018 to support students advancing social justice and environmental sustainability. The inaugural Fellowship year marks the 50th year of the Whole Earth Festival and was designed to fund projects exploring the history of student activism and student-led advancement of social justice, sustainable technology, and environmental sustainability at UC Davis.
The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences is pleased to announce the inaugural recipients of the Green Fellowship.
Aina Smart Truco
Aina, a local Davis resident, graduated from UC Davis in 2019 with a degree in Sustainable Environmental Design. Aina used her creative skills and mentorship from Assistant Professor David de la Peña to turn interviews with activists from the past and present into a “documentary film, an artistic installation, and a storybook research paper to visually animate these leaders experiences.” She imagines her project “can be used as the beginning of a new movement of activism on campus, where a better understanding of where we’ve come from can inform how we pursue a more progressive and idealistic future by getting more students involved and pushing for change.”
Aina brings significant experience to the Green Fellowship. At UC Davis she has already helped the D-Lab design a insulation testing chamber as well as participated in the experimental course “Bending the Curve” where she helped re-imagine a renewable fueling parking area. While studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain she helped create a short documentary video based on interviews about urban planning initiatives with local stakeholders.
View the documentary film Aina created for her fellowship "What makes an activist?" on the Davis Filmmaking Society YouTube Channel.
Christopher Almaraz
A junior transfer student and Communications major from Salinas, California, Christopher enrolled at UC Davis in Fall 2018 and immediately connected with the community at the Student Farm as he explored his interests on campus including his passion for food justice.
For his Fellowship project, Christopher interviewed past activists and student leaders and created a multi-media art and information installation of photos, handouts, art work and virtually any artifacts that could be used to understand something about the people, institutions or cultures of the past.
At Hartnell Community College, he learned about what sociologist to refer to as a “Sociological Imagination” and began to recognize the disconnect that the majority of society has with food and the importance of sustainable agriculture and technologies which sparked the inspiration for his fellowship. Christopher’s background also includes work on an organic farm alongside coursework in communications, sociology and psychology. He was supported by his mentor, Kait Murray, a current Ph.D. student in the Education Graduate Group and Director of First Year experience at UC Davis.