“There were constant concerns about droughts,” said Val Zayden Schull, referencing their childhood in California’s agriculturally-rich San Joaquin Valley. “My father is a farmworker, and they’re the ones who will be severely impacted by climate change. If farmworkers can’t work, they can’t provide for their families.” A first-generation college student, Schull double-majored in biological engineering and natural resources at Cornell University, where a professor encouraged them to follow their research interests to Purdue.
March 8, 2021