Introducing Sophia Thé

Hi everyone! My name is Sophia, I am a senior Econ major with a double minor in UEP and French. A little bit about my Oxy extracurriculars: I was on the women’s volleyball team, I work as a Senior Fellow for the Admissions Office, and I have done summer research with the Econ department studying STEM gender and racial gaps in elementary school students.

I am taking this course because I really want to dive into the intersections of my areas of study, particularly the intersection of Econ and UEP. I think this course fits perfectly into that space and will give me invaluable knowledge about my potential career path. I am also super excited to have a study abroad experience since I decided not to go to France because of pandemic related reasons.

I am most excited to study the social sustainability section of the class. Being a multiracial person I am fascinated with how different races and cultures converge and interact with each other in a single space. In line with my other minor, I am most excited to tour the French quarter while we are in Freiburg.

One question that sparked my thinking from the reading is whether it would have been possible for Germany to become the world leader in sustainability without its painful past that forced it to focus on the future.