By: Kate Shlepr. Change invites uncertainty and therefore risk. I feel the weight and exhilaration of this reality as I sit to reflect on events from the past six months, both in my personal life and in our world. For one, it strikes me that I am (now) an openly queer person writing from my desk in a Congressional office two generations after the Stonewall riots; if those aren’t evidence of change, what is? 

By: Nicholas Anderson. I work at the NOAA Fisheries Office of Habitat Conservation in support of one of the agency’s missions, to ensure our nation has sustainable fisheries and recover threatened and endangered species by promoting fish passage at hydropower dams. I visited two hydropower dams in May 2021 to see how at a local level our program provides guidance to the different parties involved in hydropower and fish passage planning.

By: Michaela Margida. If you type the title of this article into a Google search, as I did nearly a year ago when I was first placed in U.S. Senator Cory Booker’s office as a Legislative Knauss Fellow, you’ll find that there are over 27 pages of results. I read the first 30 or so search results before realizing that confidence probably wasn’t something I’d get through an academic approach.

By: Shellby Johnson. When I received an unexpected invitation during my Knauss Fellowship to join an ocean exploration transit across the North Atlantic, stress definitely entered the room, but I chose to fight, and it was one of the best professional and personal experiences of my life. Learn about my experience in this interactive feature.

By: María Mercedes Carruthers Ferrero. “FEMA flexible” is a phrase I have heard many times throughout my Knauss Fellowship. I have learned that the mindset alluded to by this phrase is not only key to achieving community resilience, but to personal and professional success.