Steven Yang is a first generation Hmong American and college student who graduated in 2017 with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Political Science and a minor in Environmental Studies from the University Of Wisconsin Madison. Steven is a recipient of the Gates Millennium Scholarship, an academic scholarship award and program for higher education. Gates Millennium Scholars are provided with a full financial scholarship to attend any U.S. college. In an applicant pool of 54,000 he was among the 1,000 recipients that were selected. In early 2016 he spent a semester studying abroad at the the University of Iceland in Reykjavík. Following his studies abroad, Steven interned with the Department of the Interior in Washington D.C. during the summer under Sally Jewell. Jewell served as the Secretary of the Interior directly under former President Barack Obama. For the past year he completed an AmeriCorps service year with the Minnesota GreenCorps. The Minnesota GreenCorps program is a statewide initiative, coordinated by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, to preserve and protect Minnesota’s environment. This August, to further expand his passion for the environment, he will be pursuing a Master’s of Environmental Management degree at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He is an incredibly humble individual with a drive to excel and further push others to succeed. He is passionate about establishing effective environmental policy to preserve our natural resources and protecting our environmental lands from being reduced.
Written by Scott Yang
