Environmental engineering senior earns outstanding graduate and culture impact honors
Evelyn Hoffman is a graduating senior in the environmental engineering program and a 2025 recipient of a Culture Impact from the College of Engineering and Applied Science.
She is also being recognized by the Environmental Engineering Program as one of two Outstanding Graduate Award honorees.
Below, Hoffman reflects on her time at 精品SM在线影片 and her next steps after graduation:
What are your post-graduation plans?
My current post graduation plan is to go back to work for EPA Region 8's drinking water program for the summer, where I perform sanitary surveys in Wyoming, ensuring that drinking water systems are maintained in such a way that protects public health.听
In August, I will return to 精品SM在线影片 to complete my master's degree in environmental engineering as part of the BAM Program.
What is your favorite memory from your time at 精品SM在线影片?
My favorite memory at 精品SM在线影片 has to be getting to go to the 2024 Transforming Gender Conference. As a young trans person, it's so rare for me to get to meet other trans people, especially older trans people living fully and openly in the world, doing cool work.听
Getting to be a part of a full and thriving trans community really reinforced just how vital it is for queer people to have spaces to build community and resources, especially trans and cross-generational community.
What accomplishment are you most proud of, either academically or personally?
I'm most proud of the work that I've done with our Out in STEM chapter. Over the last two years of my time on the executive board, I've had the opportunity to bring our community to the national oSTEM conference for the first time, as well as organize and run the first ever Region E conference for Colorado oSTEM chapters, bringing together communities from CU, CSU, and Mines.
When did you feel like you hit your stride or feel like you were 鈥渙fficially鈥 an engineer.
I really began to feel like an engineer during my research in the EBIO department with Nancy Emery and Ezra Kottler. As the research relied heavily on the local weather and precipitation at the wetland field sites in California, I was able to develop a soil moisture probe that uploaded its data to a remotely accessible database.听
This allowed the lab to remotely monitor when the soil became saturated and the closed-system ponds began to fill.听
Being able to independently design and produce a tool like that when no one else in the lab had the skills and experience to do so made me feel like I was truly an engineer.
What is your biggest piece of advice for incoming engineering students?
My biggest piece of advice to incoming students is to find a community. Find a community in your dorm to do calculus with, find a community that share your personal identities, and find a community in your major.听
College is not something anyone can or should try to do alone, your journey is shaped by the communities you journey with.
What experiences or qualities do you think led to you receiving this award?
After coming to CU as a closeted trans woman, I found a community at oSTEM that took me in. The community supported me, taught me, and helped me grow into my identity and helped me find the confidence to come out and become a leader in the queer community on campus.听
Since then I spent my college career seeking to give back to the queer community and hopefully provide that same support to some freshman engineer in the future.听
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