WHEATLAND - Lydia Ellefsen is an undergraduate senior at the University of Wyoming and summer intern at the Platte County Record-Times.

She grew up in Lakewood, Colorado and attended Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School and Lakewood High School. In high school, she participated in choir for all four years. Additionally, she took piano lessons, which she really enjoyed.

She grew up with her two parents and one younger sister.

At the University of Wyoming, she is majoring in environmental system science/environment and natural resources, with a dual major in political science. Her interests in the environment has been influenced by her parents, both of whom are geophysicists and the various national parks she has visited growing up. Additionally, she is minoring in Spanish and philosophy. She hopes to pursue a career in environmental policy and/or law and environmental justice, inspired by and driven by principles of justice and equity. She plans to attend graduate or law school after earning her undergraduate degree.

At university, she has participated in the World Language and Culture Program for a year, as a freshman, and has recently started attending Philosophy Club. She also attended Wyoming Stoic Camp this year, interested in learning more about philosophy.

Her Catholic faith has played a significant role in her life. She attended middle school and high school youth group growing up, at church, and she also participated in adult mixed choir in high school at church. She is involved at the Newman Center in Laramie, participating in Bible study and youth group during the school year and in church choir.

In her free time, she enjoys playing the piano, listening to music, and hiking. She also enjoys reading classic literature and also fantasy. Some of her favorite books are Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy, Jane Eyre and Oliver Twist.

She accepted the summer internship at the Platte County Record-Times because she is interested in learning scientific journalism. The internship is funded by Wyoming EPSCoR (Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research), funded by the National Science Foundation, to support research education and those in STEM fields. She believes that an understanding of science is incredibly and important, as it can help inform policies, and believes it is also important for science to be accessible and inclusive to everyone. Overall, she accepted this internship to have the opportunity to expand and share science with others and understand how to make scientific reading more accessible and how this could relate to policy and decision-making.

English was her favorite subject in high school, having been exposed to books she has really enjoyed such as The Great Gatsby and Beloved. She has not had any formal training or classes in journalism but is excited that this internship will provide an opportunity to learn about and practice journalism.

So far, she is finding the internship a good opportunity to explore journalism. It has taught her about writing and editing in the field, which has been an interesting learning experience, and she is grateful for the opportunity.