Student Spotlights - Spring 2020

Graduate Student Braden Povah

Braden Povah initially arrived at Cal Poly in 2015 as an undergraduate majoring in forestry with a concentration in hydrology. As an undergraduate, Braden wrote his senior project about the rate of deforestation in the Amazon due to agriculture and looked for possible management and economic solutions such as agroforestry to mitigate the destruction of this natural ecosystem. As a graduate student, Braden is researching the spread of sudden oak death in Central California under the advisement of Dr. Richard Cobb. They are looking to determine if there is a trend associated with specific soil properties and the spread of this disease. Braden is collaborating with David Rizzo and Kerri Frangioso at the UC Davis Plant Pathology Lab, as well as Cal Poly undergraduate Max Reynolds in order to collect field data for the project. 

Braden hopes to fill data gaps within the current sudden oak death model and looks to determine if climatic conditions and species density are the sole drivers of the disease or if soil physical and chemical characteristics are also important in driving susceptibility. Braden believes that filling these data gaps will allow land managers to know if they are at risk for pathogen transport and will help in future prevention of disease spread. Baden works as an NRES student technician under Craig Stubler, helping in the setup of soil-related labs and running the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio analyzer used in numerous research projects by other professors and students. Braden hopes to continue his work in the NRES Soils Lab post-graduate school and may one day pursue a doctorate so he could begin teaching at the university level.

Undergraduate Julia Hizami

Sophomore environmental management and protection major Julia Hizami arrived at Cal Poly fueled by her passions for water conservation and sustainable living. Her interests in environmental management were fostered by California’s long drought and by working in the food industry, both of which made her aware of the extent our valuable resources are used and how much is wasted.

Hizami’s major, along with her minor in psychology, helps her understand the relationship between communities and their interactions with the environment, and she is interested in learning how to effectively communicate with people to promote environmental change.

During the 2018-19 year, Hizami ran for – and won -- a seat on the ASI board of directors to learn how to create change on a large campus like Cal Poly’s. Now, as an ASI board member representing the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences (CAFES). Her responsibilities in this position include writing resolutions and sitting on committees, such as the Recruitment and Elections Committee and the Academic Senate Sustainability Committee. When asked about her goals, Hizami said she would like to encourage students -- and Cal Poly as an institution -- to become more aware of their habits around consumption.  Hizami aims to encourage students -- and Cal Poly as an institution -- to become more aware of how much trash they create and to learn to create less waste. Ultimately she hopes to use the principles of zero waste in her resolutions for the board of directors.

In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking and camping. She looks forward to her coming years at Cal Poly and figuring out ways she can create a more sustainable lifestyle while serving as CAFES representative.

---

Read more stories in the Spring 2020 Newsletter