In my first year at the University of Florida (UF), I participated in the Path to Purpose Fellowship with UF’s Brown Center for Leadership & Service. The fellowship is centered on local, impactful, collaborative action for social change. Throughout the year, I learned about conscious community engagement, ensuring that we co-create solutions with the community here in Gainesville, Florida. We embraced opportunities to be involved with vibrant and inspiring social change initiatives.

The Power of Community

Throughout the fellowship, we learned about community collaboration and engagement, and how we can be involved in a meaningful way. I am passionate about supporting community-centered initiatives, and through Path to Purpose, I learned about the intricacies of community involvement and how we can be mindful, collaborative and impactful.

As a first-year student studying Geography and Data Science, I am passionate about how technology can support our work in climate action and environmental justice. I view technology and data as a bridge: helping us reach our goals and supporting us along the way.

The two main focus areas of my fellowship were:

  • Data for social change, sustainability and civic engagement
  • Geospatial data storytelling

Civic Technology

Through the Path to Purpose Fellowship, I connected with the nonprofit organization, Florida Community Innovation (FCI). FCI’s mission is to empower young people to create scalable technology that serve our communities across Florida. Since I started to work with FCI in the summer of 2023, I have collaborated on projects that apply technology and GIS for social impact. I helped research datasets for the Gentrification Risk Assessment Tool, which will be an educational GIS resource visualizing the impacts of gentrification in Gainesville.

Overall, I learned about the importance of civic tech: applying technology for public service. I learned about the value that technology can bring—when it is co-created and implemented in collaboration with communities to address local problems.

Spatial Data Storytelling

As part of the fellowship, I delivered a lightning talk to our cohort about Spatial Data Storytelling for Environmental Justice.

Page: /

I loved talking about the intersection of my passions: data, geography and environmental justice.

Reflections

This past year has been an incredible journey of learning and growth. I loved having the opportunity to hear about inspiring social change work in Gainesville. One of the lessons I gained through Path to Purpose was that social change is intricate and intersectional: there are so many ways to be involved and contribute to collaborative solutions.