Kayla Miller graduated from UCHS in 2021, and currently attends Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. As an Environmental Studies major and English Literature minor, Kayla has done a phenomenal job at not only maintaining a cumulative GPA of a 3.52, but she has also been involved in tons of environmental justice initiatives both on and off campus since her very first semester of college! She is enrolled in 4 courses this semester, taking classes such as Eco Feminism, Environmental Justice in Latin America, Intro to Anthropology and an English class called Soul Power.
Although Kayla is focused on her academics and doing very well, she is also involved in her community. Kayla is on the leadership team as an organizer for an environmental justice organization called Campus Coalition Concerning Chester (C4), which is a predominantly black/brown low-income community that is home to one of the largest trash incinerators in the country. This organization allows students to work hand in hand with Chester Residents Concerned with Quality Living (CRCQL) to fight against environmental racism in Chester, PA. Some of the things Kayla does include hosting events like poster painting, clothing swaps, art workshops/exhibits, and so much more. She is deeply connected to the work she does with C4 and explained that although it is a lot of work, it is also very fun and she enjoys meeting people in Chester and having a black community outside of the PWI she attends.
Kayla is also a Resident Advisor on campus and she is on the executive board for an affinity group for Black women and gender expansive students on campus called AJA. Kayla is responsible for getting this organization back up and running after it fell off during quarantine because she wanted to create a club that would create a safe space for Black women and black non-males on campus to come together and do activities that promote their well-being. She emphasized the importance of this group, as “predominantly non-black institutions can be a hostile, isolating, and unsafe place for Black Women and black gender expansive people.”
This summer, Kayla will be working with the Good Energy Collaborative, which is a solar organization centered around environmental justice. Some of her tasks will be hosting events to help young community members become solar technicians, running solar modules, doing site visits, and overall ensuring that the community transitions to renewable sources of energy, especially the environmental justice communities that need it. What an amazing way to end her sophomore year!