When I came to IU, I was drawn to philosophy classes for the way that arguments could cut through the mist of ambiguous situations. My professors helped me fall in love with this principled approach to reasoning. I finally had words to express what was so wrong about a system that imposes disproportionate suffering onto many for the gain of relatively few. Philosophy requires creativity, rigor, and an open mind to conflicting views. It teaches you to love critiques of your own views, since the way to strengthen your arguments is to patch the holes others poke into them.

Under the mentorship of professors Matthew Adams, Katy Meadows, and others, I was able to write my undergrad honors thesis on animal ethics. This project was invaluable for several reasons. It exposed me to a deeper level of research in a specific field, humbled and made me revise some of my strongly-held views, and ultimately strengthened my outlook on the need for reform in animal rights.

I plan to use the skills from my philosophy degree in law school. From there, I aspire to accelerate the development and adoption of alternative proteins, which I view as the most promising strategy to undercut the economic incentives for factory farming.