Meet our latest Camel of the Week, Anna Hofmann! This senior is a campus celebrity; if you see her around campus she’s most likely wearing the most contagious smile and saying hi to everyone that comes her way. If you need a mood lift just look Anna’s way. It’s her positive attitude, and involvement in Habitat for Humanity and SOAR, which are just a few of the things that make Anna the incredible person she is. If you haven’t met her yet make sure you do before she graduates! This generous human being took some time out of her busy senior life to answer some questions on all she’s involved with. Check out how Anna made the most of her four years at Conn, including her time abroad in Australia, her junior year funded internship, and her plans to move to Washington D.C.!
Name: Anna Hofmann
Hometown: Waterbury Center, VT
Major: Environmental Studies and Education Certificate
Extracurricular Activities: Habitat for Humanity, SOAR
Favorite place on campus?
Hark Patio/the Green. I think this is pretty much an indisputable fact especially at this time of year.
What got you involved in Habitat for Humanity?
I actually came into Conn knowing I wanted to do Hab because there was a house built on my street. I thought it was a really interesting organization and a cool way to engage an entire community to provide affordable housing.
What was the best thing about studying abroad in Australia?
I studied the rainforest and reef while abroad and for our reef module we lived out on a boat and conducted research/explored the reef all day. This was definitely the highlight because the Great Barrier Reef is so beautiful and there were moments when I actually thought I was in Nemo’s neighborhood and that’s priceless. Also as we all know the reefs are dwindling from human impacts and it was amazing (although depressing) to see it at its current glory since it won’t be around forever. Definitely would recommend a trip out there ASAP to all my fans and followers out there reading this.
What did you do for your CELS internship and how was your experience?
I worked as a solar policy intern at Boston Community Capital which completely opened my eyes to the advocacy and policy side of the environmental field. Massachusetts has been working to improve solar policy for awhile now and this summer was an important time to pass legislation in the state legislature so I got a lot of experience working with representatives and other environmental organizations to produce and advocate for good solar policy. I also really liked working at BCC because they focused especially on making solar accessible in low-income communities. There is a stigma that solar is too expensive to be used by everyone, but there are a lot of ways to use solar to lower and stabilize costs for low-income communities. I really enjoyed learning about creative projects of people doing exactly that.
Looking back what advice would you have for your freshmen year self?
Buy a cell phone for college. As a little sheltered hippy from VT who had never owned a cell phone, I thought it was completely acceptable to wait to get a cell phone a few months into college. Although I admire my free spirit I definitely missed out on some potential friendships and offended a few people who thought I was lying to them when they asked to exchange numbers. Luckily I had a really cool roommate who took on the role of being my personal secretary. Now the next step is to buy a new phone for the real world since I still have my OG iPhone 4 that my friends lovingly call my “potato phone.”
What are your plans for after graduation?
I am moving to D.C. to work at Environment America as a Clean Energy Fellow where I will be on the clean energy campaign doing policy research, community organizing, advocacy, and lobbying on the Hill. I’m pumped because the city and organization are both awesome, but I know about two people in the whole city so if anyone is reading this and headed to DC hit me up!
Any final thoughts?
I would just love to say thank you so much for this amazing opportunity to be famous on campus, thank you to my family for the support, to my friends for always believing in me, to my professors for teaching me everything I know, and to Pixar for giving me Nemo as my inspiration.