Brittany Bondi ’19 has always had a fascination with environmental justice, climate change, and nature-human interaction. At Gettysburg, she has been able to foster these interests in every aspect of college life. Through a fellowship with the Cross-Disciplinary Science Institute at Gettysburg College (X-SIG), Bondi had the opportunity to analyze Icelandic glacial landforms. Bondi collaborated with Prof. Sarah Principato and another X-SIG fellow, Marion McKenzie ’19, to conduct fieldwork in Iceland with state-of-the-art geographic information system technology.
Bondi also earned a Kolbe Fellowship, which allowed her to continue studying environmental justice and communications. Using a series of self-designed surveys, she tested participants’ attitudes about climate change in conjunction with a screening of the film, The Human Element. Since then, Bondi has expanded on her Kolbe Fellowship project for her senior honors thesis using an additional survey and studying participants’ attitudes over an eight-week period. The purpose of the research is to determine how stories (such as a film) affect one's environmental concerns and behavior.
In addition to her research, Bondi works to spread awareness about environmental and social justice. As co-president of the Gettysburg Environmental Concerns Organization (GECO), she created a video that educate college students about sustainability. In addition, she is preparing for a GreenAllies conference on campus this February. “I think that if we want to see change at the national and industry level, we need to first convince ourselves and others that sustainability is possible on all scales: personal, campus, community, and national,” Bondi said.