Lessons in environment and community
PCJ in the Bay Fellow Stories: Chloe Hughes
Helping the environment starts with understanding the community.
Growing up in a small town in Ohio, I was always intrigued by the saturated foliage surrounding me, even though no one ever taught me about it in school. I remember walking outside and feeling a sense of calm and curiosity when looking at the trees and plants.
For a long time, I believed this fascination was something unique to me. It was only when I began sharing my thoughts with other students in my high school classes that I realized I was not alone. To my surprise, almost everyone I spoke with admitted to noticing the same things but never felt it was worth mentioning. That was the first time I understood how many people carry unspoken connections to the environment around them.
I wanted to encourage people in my community to actively engage with the environment, and I knew this had to begin with education. I started an environmental organization within my school. What began as small projects quickly grew into larger efforts. We set up recycling programs, organized tree planting events, and planned community-wide cleanups with international nonprofits. Eventually, I was able to secure funding from Fortune 500 companies that believed in our mission. These experiences taught me the importance of leadership, persistence, and showing people how their small actions contribute to something much larger.
The community support I received left me inspired. Seeing people come together for cleanups and planting days gave me confidence that collective action could create change. At the same time, I was somewhat naive. I thought what worked in my town could easily be applied everywhere. I imagined that people across the country, if given the right programs, would be able to rally around environmental work in the same way.
Arriving at Stanford reshaped that perspective. I quickly learned that while climate change affects everyone, it does not affect everyone equally. The burden falls most heavily on low-income communities, where resources are already stretched thin. In these places, expecting people to volunteer their time without compensation is not realistic. Families balancing multiple jobs or struggling to pay rent cannot always contribute free labor to environmental projects. What I once saw as a simple formula of education and engagement became more complex. Addressing climate issues requires understanding the broader context of inequality.
My work with Acterra deepened this understanding. While building data tools for the organization, I learned that numbers and charts alone cannot tell the full story. The data pointed to patterns of pollution and inequity, but it was listening to community members that gave meaning to those numbers. For example, data might show high levels of asthma in one neighborhood, but talking to families reveals how missing school and paying medical bills creates stress that cannot be captured in a dataset. I realized that effective solutions require more than technical fixes. They require empathy and a willingness to listen.
Engaging with communities taught me that identity plays a large role in shaping perspectives. A person’s cultural background, language, or history with institutions influences how they see environmental programs. In some neighborhoods, mistrust of outside organizations runs deep. In others, community members are eager to participate but lack the resources to do so. I learned that approaching people without understanding their identities and experiences risks reinforcing barriers rather than breaking them down. True engagement means meeting people where they are and co-creating solutions that reflect their realities.
These lessons changed how I see both myself and the field of environmental work. In my small town, I learned the power of initiative and how small projects could inspire large amounts of community pride. At Stanford and through Acterra, I learned that real impact requires equity and collaboration. Education is still essential, but it has to extend beyond teaching people to recycle or plant trees. It means raising awareness about systemic inequalities and finding ways to ensure that everyone has access to solutions, not just those with extra time or money to spare.
Most importantly, I learned that my role is not to arrive with answers but to listen and support. The environment is not separate from the people who live in it. Their stories and struggles are part of the work itself. What started as a personal curiosity about trees in Ohio has grown into a commitment to making sure that environmental efforts are fair, inclusive, and grounded in real community needs.
Chloe Hughes is a senior majoring in data science with a concentration in brains and behavior. In the summer of 2025, she was a Partnerships for Climate Justice in the Bay Area Fellow with Acterra, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding clean energy access for all. As a data science intern passionate about data accessibility, she worked across all teams at Acterra to promote energy equity for a cleaner environment.
