Growing up in Singapore, Kate Yeo '25 saw how migrant workers and low-income families were disproportionately affected by the country's sweltering heat. "Climate change definitely cuts across class, and in the United States, it cuts across race as well," Kate says. "I started to see those intersections when the zero waste movement started growing in Singapore." In high school, Kate implemented Bring Your Own Bottle Singapore, a campaign that reduced single-use plastic waste in over 230 Singaporian stores— and her activist mindset was born.
When it came time to apply to college, Kate saw Dartmouth's idyllic location as the perfect backdrop for her interest in studying climate policy. "Dartmouth drew me in because of its location in the woods, which was a contrast to my very compact and crowded city," Kate says. "Here, there are so many opportunities to get outdoors."
Now, Kate credits her professors at Dartmouth with helping to transform her worldview. "They've really helped me to understand different perspectives surrounding climate policy, like the importance of centering Indigenous knowledge in environmental work," she reflects.
Kate's Dartmouth experience has been nothing short of global. Last winter, she traveled to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on a Foreign Study Program sponsored by the Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages program. The program allowed her to practice her skills in sustainability journalism. "My classmates and I completed a project investigating how dam construction impacts agriculture on the Mekong Delta. We interviewed farmers and community members, and brought their stories to life in a video."
Last November, Kate represented Singapore at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP27, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, where she moderated a panel on youth climate activism and spoke on a panel on climate education. Seven months later, she used a grant from Dartmouth's Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society to attend the Bonn Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany. Negotiators from around the globe came together for the conference to discuss key decisions in advance of the upcoming UN climate summit, COP28. "I participated in negotiations on carbon markets, mitigation, and loss and damage," Kate says, "and watched geopolitics play out in real time." In a written reflection on the conference, Kate underscored the importance of finding community within the climate movement.
"From catching up with friends to learning from experienced academics and advocates, the conference offered me a strong sense of community. I don't know if my being here will change anything, but I do know that at the end of the day, most of us are just trying to save our own little corner of the Earth in our own ways—and that is all I can ask for."
Photograph by Don Hamerman
