Mia Oenoto from Jakarta, Indonesia, is studying BSc Environmental Science at Xi’an Jiaotong- Liverpool University in Suzhou, China.
“It’s an interdisciplinary subject,” she said, “I need to know about law, international relations, and science. It can be challenging, but I really enjoy it.”
Mia attended high school in Jakarta , the capital of Indonesia and a very densely populated city. She originally planned to study law or medicine at university, but became interested in environmental science through the influence of her mother.
” I studied finance and accounting as an undergraduate,” said Mia , “I think if environmental science had been available as a major at the time she did her undergraduate degree, she definitely would have taken it.”
Mia’s mother works as an accountant. She shared with Mia her love for the outdoors and her concern for environmental issues, giving her Al Gore’s books on climate change when she was a teenager .
“She asked me to read them to improve my English,” she said , “I think the real reason was to raise my awareness about global warming. My mother encouraged me to think about the future and how I can contribute to it, not just to find a job and make money.”
In 2015, Mia represented XJTLU at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, France , where delegates from over 190 countries discussed reducing greenhouse gas emissions that pollute the air and contribute to global warming. She also delivered a Youth Climate Declaration to the international Conference of Youth held in advance of the main conference.
It was Mia’s mother who first gave her a brochure from XJTLU in which she read about the modules she would later go on to study as part of BSc Environmental Science .
“We don’t just read journal articles,” said Mia , “We read the real documents that form the basis of agreements between countries about how to prevent climate change.”
“The Department incorporates a lot of different perspectives and collaborates with other departments including Biological Sciences and the Business School,” she continued , “We’ve had guest lectures by academics from Urban Planning and Design an d Architecture.”
Founded in 2006, Xi’an Jiaotong- Liverpool University is the largest international joint venture university inChina , a partnership between Xi’an Jiaotong University and the University of Liverpool.
SOURCE Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
