On November 14, 2024, I attended the 2024 Touchstone Reception for the Greater Philadelphia chapter of the Society of Women Environmental Professionals (SWEP). Once again hosted at World Café Live, attendees knew they were in for a wonderful night of networking and celebration. This year’s theme was “Rooted in Strength,” and the favors and décor matched the theme wonderfully. Each table had a jar containing some moss, water, and a pothos stem that was, you guessed it, rooting! Additionally, each guest received a custody-sealed vial full of wildflower seeds, perfect for sowing in next year’s garden.

Celebrating Grant Winners

To kick off our night, this year’s grant winners were recognized. The first organization, the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center (FWWIC), was a repeat recipient of a SWEP grant. Its summer program, “Exploring Our Urban Watershed,” teaches 9th grade girls about their local environment and the steps that are being taken to protect it. The program closes with a hike and a kayak trip ̶  a great opportunity for the attendees to observe the aquatic ecosystems and food webs they learned about throughout the program. FWWIC’s director, Karen Young, took the stage to express her thanks and remind us all that representation matters even if we don’t immediately see the impact.

The other grant recipient was Berks Nature, which runs a program intended to support the “Think Like a Citizen Scientist” journey for Girl Scouts. The focus of the program is water quality testing, which makes sense considering that Berks Nature’s conservation efforts include watershed protection. Additionally, Berks Nature is recognized by NASA’s Global Learning and Observations to benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program for its support of citizen science, a worthy cause that the SWEP grant will help to fund.

Student Scholars Making a Difference

In addition to the grants, SWEP also offers scholarships. This year’s scholarship winners couldn’t be more different in their studies; it’s an incredible demonstration of the variety of fields impacting our environment. Ashley Choi, for instance, is working toward her Master of Environmental Studies degree at the University of Pennsylvania. She has served as an Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Fellow for Nasdaq and currently studies regulations, providing information to investors so that they can make decisions with the environment in mind. I know that I don’t often think of financials when I think of the environmental field, but we should! Ms. Choi proves that the two can be unified in a productive harmony.

Meanwhile, Lily Kelleher, who is pursuing a master’s in biology at West Chester University, has been taking a hands-on approach to research. She told the audience about her passion for microbial ecology and her current focus on the microbiomes of aphaenogaster ants. She hopes to learn more about how climate change will affect the species by observing their microbiomes under various conditions. In the future, she hopes to get her Ph.D. in ecology and eventually become a museum curator!  

Keynote Speaker: A Voice for Nuclear Energy

For the second year in a row, we were honored to have a queen in our midst! A pageant queen, that is. Grace Stanke is a nuclear engineer who spent her term as Miss America 2023 dispelling myths about nuclear energy. In addition to her Miss America win, she also made the 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for energy, and the Wall Street Journal called her “The New Face of Nuclear Energy” in a September 2023 article! Grace’s eloquence spoke for itself as she served as our keynote speaker for the evening. She spoke about her passion for helping people with science, how she became a nuclear engineer out of spite (yes, you read that correctly), and her struggle to connect with older generations. Despite her love for nuclear energy, a negative experience with one attendee after a talk had caused her to hide her passion from an entire demographic, at least until she couldn’t hide it anymore. Fortunately, after that, her talks went much better, and she learned that sharing her story and her passion “is a chance worth taking,” even if she doesn’t always receive the hoped-for response. I think we all need to hear that occasionally. I also think that Grace has a stunningly bright future ahead of her as a nuclear engineer.

Honoring the Touchstone Awardee

Last, but certainly not least, our Touchstone Awardee took the stage. Rebecca (Becky) Buchanan is an Environmental Manager at AECOM and a former SWEP Executive Board Chair. She was nominated by her coworker, Marie Forney, who commended Becky as one of her primary mentors. Her acceptance speech, like many others that night, involved stories of how her passions influenced her career choices and demonstrated the importance of pursuing your hobbies alongside your work. Becky shared that fly-fishing with her family as a child motivated her passion for conservation. She also spoke about how her involvement in professional groups, like SWEP, and social groups, like the Delaware Women’s Fly-Fishing Association, continued to create connections between her career and her passions, as well as connections with others. My takeaway is that even when our hobbies seem distant from our professional lives, they can play a vital role in shaping who we are and the impact we have.

I have now attended two Touchstone Award Receptions, and I left this year’s program even more inspired than I was in 2023. Congratulations again to all the recipients, and I can’t wait for next year!