Member Highlight: Ashley Fernando

Meet Ashley Fernando, a fourth-year environmental science major from Riverside! She’s most passionate about the environment, specifically climate change, pollution, and environmental injustice. Throughout her time at Net Impact, Ashley worked with Miravel—a company which promotes sustainable agriculture through home gardens—to help develop their social impact strategy. Besides Net Impact, Ashley is actively researching the ecological impact of LED light pollution at the UCLA Institute of Environment and Sustainability. Besides her research, she also took a film class, learned to brew kombucha, and did lots of cooking and baking this summer!

Why did you join Net Impact?

I care about the environment and the people that live in it. Businesses are a major contributor to climate change, air/water pollution, and environmental injustice, and I hope to help guide industry down a more sustainable route by supporting social enterprise

What are you most passionate about?

I am most passionate about sustainability, specifically for the benefit of living things. I care about the future of humanity, the people most affected by climate change, and about the wildlife that have no say in the human affairs that exploit the planet

What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned from Net Impact?

Professional development things (fixing my resume and LinkedIn, learning how to reach out to people and network). Also that I CAN do consulting, and it’s not out of reach just because I wasn’t familiar with it before university

What is your favorite memory from Net Impact?

All of them! But I miss hanging out with everyone at meeting and socials

What are your hobbies?

Cooking, baking, gardening