Summer Centered: Hannah Krohn '17 Works to Protect America's Waterways

This summer political science major Hannah Krohn '17 is interning at PennEnvironment, organizing community forums, writing letters, and lobbying legislators in support of the recent Clean Water Rule. That ruling, made by the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, which declared non-navigable waters to be protected under the Clean Water Act, protects over 2 million miles of streams, and PennEnvironment's goal is to stop Congress from overturning the rule later this summer.

Krohn has also been working on the Clean Power Plan, an EPA-proposed rule that would limit carbon dioxide pollution, and the PA Sunshine Solar Program, a Pennsylvania Department of Energy program that endeavors to make Philadelphia a leader is solar energy. In support of this goal, she travelled to Harrisburg, Pa., to support Governor Tom Wolf's proposed budget.

"I met with Rep. Greg Vitali, who is the democratic chair of the Committee on Environmental Resources & Energy, and Sen. Daylin Leach, and had a fruitful conversation with both legislators about restoring funding to environmental institutions in Pennsylvania," says Krohn. "If the budget is passed, it would restore funding to the PA Sunshine Solar Program and increase the funding in the PA Department of Environmental Protection and Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which is desperately needed."

The daughter of two geologists, Krohn has always been interested in the environment, but she says the courses for her environmental studies minor have really propelled her interest into policy.

"I took 'Introduction to Environmental Studies' with [Assistant Professors] John Wilson and Joshua Moses, who have both been amazing sources of support and made me want to pursue my studies of the environment," says Krohn. She has also taken environmental studies courses across the Quaker Consortium at Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Krohn's summer work is sponsored by the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship, but she says that many offices at the College are responsible for preparing her for her position.

"The Center for Career and Professional Advising...were a godsend for me this past academic year," she says. "From going to workshops on how to write resumes and create LinkedIn pages, to hosting the Career Fair in February, where I got the internship position, I literally could not have gotten where I am without them."

Next fall, Krohn is studying abroad in Freiburg, Germany, for the semester, exploring the European Union and its environmental policies. She hopes this work will give her a supranational perspective to compare to the local one she is currently experiencing.

She says one of her favorite environmental sayings is, "Acceptance is optional, participation is mandatory." "My goal from this internship and maybe my career will be to get more people over to acceptance side of that adage, before the participation is in too dire of a situation," says Krohn.

—Jack Hasler '15

"Summer Centered" is a series exploring our students' Center-funded summer work.