Name: Iosefa Percival
Year: Fall 2015
Major(s): Environmental Studies, Economics, and Physics
Hometown: Tiapapata, Samoa
HC: What are you involved in on campus?
I am part of the Brandeis Surfing Association, and was the president for the majority of my time here. I organize the Japanese Language table; we meet once a week, and we talk in Japanese about various topics. I work at the Technology Help Desk as a student manager and a technician. I TA two classes, so I am involved in a lot of academics; I TA the introductory course in environmental studies (The Fundamental Challenges of Environmental Studies), and a graduate level class on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) theory. I am also involved in a project that Brandeis is a part of: I work with a group of students and staff to repurpose computer technology. We have formed a nonprofit that takes older but working univeristy machines, refurbish them and then deliver them to community learning centers across the world, mostly in the Pacific. The company’s name is Upega, Inc., and more information can be found about it at www.upega.org. Another somewhat cool thing that happened recently is that I received a call from one of my buddies back home, and he’s involved in the local surfing association. He called to tell me that they had nominated me to be the president of the Samoa Surfing association.
HC: What has been one of your favorite experiences at Brandeis so far?
Every week at least at least once a week I meet up with other students and community members who are either studying Japanese language or have an interest in Japanese culture and speak the language, to talk in Japanese at the Japanese Language Table. I love hanging with the group that forms the language table. Every week we talk about all sorts of interesting things and play several great games. One of my favorite is “werewolf”, which can be described as a Japanese twist on the game Mafia. So much fun.
HC: Is there anything on campus that you have wanted to get involved in, but never had the opportunity, or the time, to?
Two things: I really wanted to be more involved with the efforts that the Brandeis students make to make the campus more sustainable, especially in terms of energy use, and there’s a big movement to divest campuses from fossil fuels. I spend quite a bit of time thinking about these issues: energy use, sustainable development, environmental economics, and the implications surrounding climate change, and our impact on the environment, but I never really had the time to get involved with what students were doing on campus right in front of me. I have been doing some work in the Pacific; I worked with Conservation International doing research, but I had opportunities right in front of me, and I never took the time to take advantage of them. the second thing is that I wanted to work in one of the physics labs, but between my other jobs, I just wasn’t able to. Actually, I also wish that I went to one of the Brandeis Anime Club meetups. I like Japanese anime. That would have been fun.
HC: What are your plans after Brandeis?
I graduate and leave Brandeis at the end of this semester. On January 1st, I am leaving Boston and I am going back to Samoa for three months, where I am going to do three things: Surf, write, – write being continuing some of my current research – and relax. After that, I am moving to Kyoto, Japan, to go to graduate school at Kyoto University to complete a master’s degree in international environmental management.
HC: What do you hope to accomplish before the end of this year?
I want to send at least one of the papers I am working on to a journal so that it can be published. That’s my plan. I am currently working on three papers, all revolve around ocean acidification and the management of tuna fisheries in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.
HC: How do you like to spend your free time? Or is free time some imaginary concept that you laugh at?
I don’t have very much free time, but it’s certainly not an imaginary concept. I don’t laugh at it. When I have free time, I very much treasure it, I enjoy it. I am a very big Game of Thrones fan, and I get together with a very good group of friends at least once a week to play board games and discuss fan theories, which is often, alongside the language table, the highlight of my week. I also like to surf, and so I head out to the beach and try to surf when I can. But that’s more dictated by the waves then anything else. Sometimes I don’t have free time, and if there are waves it can be hard to decide how I should spend my time. However, if the waves are good, the decision is easy. I surf.
Favorites:
Movie: Paprika is probably one of my favorite movies
Book series: I am really into The Song of Ice and Fire right now.
Class(es) at Brandeis: Quantum mechanics, Readings in Contemporary Japanese Literature.
Animal: Tuna fish (not the food, but the fish).