Emily Owens, BS Geology and Environmental Studies, Whitman College, MS planned in Environmental Engineering.

Emily never would have guessed she’d end up in Houghton, MI, pursuing a MS in Environmental Engineering! Then again, she has always enjoyed the adventures associated with never quite knowing what next to expect from life.

Emily grew up in the rolling hills of southern Indiana and southern Wisconsin, and then headed west for her undergraduate. She spent three years at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, playing in the mountains and canyons, and earning a degree in Geology and Environmental Studies. For her junior year, Emily was ready for a change of scenery, and spent the year in Senegal. There she got a lot of new freckles, traveled, ate a lot of ceebu_jen (rice and fish, the Senegalese national dish), learned some Wolof, took economics and geography classes in French, and improved her bargaining skills in the markets. After living in Senegal, Emily wanted to return to live and work in the developing world, and the MI Program seemed like an ideal way to combine the Peace Corps with grad school.