2020 Women's Empowerment Scholarship Recipient

Rachel Wagner is a junior at Tufts University double majoring in environmental studies and Spanish. At Tufts, Rachel walked on to the varsity women’s rowing team her freshman year and has fallen in love with both the strong, empowering women and the beauty of being on the water. An avid advocate for the divestment from fossil fuels, she completed an intensive fellowship with DivestEd. She was also a board member of Tufts Climate Action (TCA) at her university where she ran meetings, co-authored text in the 2019 TCA Senate Resolution, and spoke as a panelist on behalf of TCA in the Tufts Democrat’s Climate Change Solutions Debate.

As a Spanish major, Rachel has profound interest in social justice efforts for the Latinx community; she interned for the nonprofit Jewish Vocational Services after her first year at Tufts as the head of Hispanic outreach to offer immigrants free English classes and career development opportunities. She has continued this line of work through her sophomore year into the present at Potencia, a student-founded nonprofit, where she tutors adult English learners from the Latinx community and was selected as Tutor of the Year in 2019.

Rachel worked with the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA) in the summer of 2019 to combine her love for social justice and environment. She conducts weekly water quality field research in the Mystic River Watershed, and her research analysis materials have been referenced for important health advisory determinations by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Through MyRWA, Rachel also works to advise and educate the local community through Covid-permitting events and aids in bilingual outreach to the East Boston area.

We are pleased to award Rachel with a $1,000 scholarship for the 2020-2021 academic school year.