Hi everyone! My name is Taylor Wurts and I am a new Legislative Affairs intern at Mass Audubon. I am a rising senior at Tufts University where I study International Relations, Economics, and French. I have been fortunate enough to have had many incredible experiences in the outdoors and am honored to help protect the planet with Mass Audubon’s advocacy department this summer.
Growing up and going to school in Massachusetts, the organization’s many incredible wildlife sanctuaries were never far from home. Some of my earliest memories are of watching the goats at Drumlin Farm, while more recently I’ve frequently cross paths with Mass Audubon sanctuaries while training as a member of Tufts’s cross country and track and field teams. Similarly, as a trip leader for an outdoor education program last summer, I led bike touring and camping trips for teenagers that traversed Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. Sharing the unique beauty of these natural landscapes and teaching conservation, leave no trace, and outdoor living principles, I was reminded daily of the importance of preserving our state’s many resources so that future generations can be afforded the same opportunities I have. Organizations like Mass Audubon are leading this charge, whether through advocacy efforts at the State House, conservation initiatives at fifty-nine sanctuaries across the state, or educational outdoor programs and camps.
This summer, I hope to gain a more nuanced understanding of how the policy process works at both the state and federal level, and leave with valuable tools to help effect environmental change. Afterwards, I will be finishing up my studies at Tufts University before hopefully beginning an environmentally-focused career. I seek to one day work at the intersection of international relations and environmental policy, helping to forge an increasingly critical global climate regime. I am eager to get to work with Mass Audubon and hope you all join me for this adventure!