2025 Environmental Studies Seniors
Brayden Bice
Hometown: Bentonville, Arkansas
Major: Environmental Communications
About: Brayden enjoys spending time outside and learning about environmental biology and conservation. Brayden spent the summer of 2024 in Costa Rica studying conservation communication. In Costa Rica, he spent time learning from local conservation experts, hiking through the rainforest, planting trees, going on sea turtle patrols, and learning about his role in the future of conservation. Brayden plans to get his master's degree, and then work for a communications team for an environmental organization. Brayden interned with the Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion (AMP) in Rogers, Arkansas in 2023. There he gained knowledge of the events and production industry while building professional relationships and developing communications and business skills. Brayden’s senior thesis focused on how plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean affects sea turtles and solutions to issues associated with it. Brayden is also a senior team captain on the Hendrix Football team. Playing football is his passion, and he is also pursuing opportunities to play professional football.
Riley Centinaro
Hometown: Lonoke, Arkansas
Second Major: Biology
About: Riley’s interest in environmental studies began with a desire to become closer to the world around him. Within the program, he discovered a love for philosophy and ecology. He completed his internship at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History working for the USDA’s systematics lab studying parasitoid wasps. He is passionate about insects and hopes to inspire more empathetic relationships towards them. His thesis topic was on the interconnections between queer identities and insects, specifically how queer perspectives in entomology are crucial to developing creative ways to combat insect extinction. After graduation, he hopes to obtain a PhD in insect systematics and spend the rest of his life with bugs.
Catherine Duncan
Hometown: Lebanon, Tennessee
Minor: Politics
About: Because she has had a strong appreciation for the environment from a young age, Catherine is in environmental studies at Hendrix to learn more about the natural world and how to protect it. With her minor in politics, she wants to use what she has learned to advocate for protecting the environment through environmental policy. Catherine participated in two internships, one with Scenic Hill Solar and another with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. At Scenic Hill Solar, Catherine learned how federal policies, like the Inflation Reduction Act, impact and promote a solar energy business. At the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Catherine learned how federal and state agencies work together to protect the environment and gained a greater appreciation for Arkansas’s abundance of nature. Through Catherine’s internship with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, she learned about wetland mitigation banks, which inspired her to study their effectiveness in greater detail for her senior thesis.
Lauren Elliott
Hometown:
About:
Drake Job
Hometown: Rancho Cucamonga, California
About: Drake is interested in environmental health and wildfire prevention. He completed an internship at Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health (CTEH) during the summer of 2023. There he experienced environmental disasters first hand. In addition, Drake grew up in California near wildfires which inspired his thesis idea to engage in policies and tactics to mitigate wildfires in California. After graduation he plans to work for an environmental firm or move back to California to be a firefighter.
Natalie Massa
Hometown: Little Rock, Arkansas
About: Natalie’s interest in environmental studies stems from her natural love for nature. Through traveling, she realized her passion for sea life and what can be done to preserve it. In her junior year, she traveled to Belize with her marine biology class where they studied Elkhorn Coral. She completed an internship prior to her senior year at Wildland Gardens in Morrilton, Arkansas. Through this opportunity, she learned small sustainable farming practices. A variety of produce and flowers were grown and sold at the Conway Farmers Market. Her career goals include continued education in the study of marine conservation. She hopes to travel the world and share sustainable practices to help save our coral reefs that are being destroyed by pollution, overfishing, and global warming. Her thesis topic addressed the issue of microplastics and the negative impacts of exposure that they have on infants and children.
Kate Nierstheimer
Hometown: Little Rock, Arkansas
Minor: Biology
About: Kate is interested in environmental studies and biology because of her lifelong love of plants and wildlife. Kate spent a summer interning for Central Arkansas Water, exploring the natural resources department and watershed conservation management. For two semesters, Kate participated in research with the Central Arkansas Urban Wildlife Project to further understand and expand conservation efforts in Arkansas and she has also worked with environmental justice research for Little Rock. Aside from academic work, Kate spends time honing her skills as an artist, accomplishing many mixed media works such as paintings, prints, and a mural.
Audrey Nony
Hometown: Little Rock, Arkansas
Second Major: Biology
About: Audrey’s interest in environmental studies intertwines closely with their love for animal diversity and their care for all creatures in the environment no matter how small. They discovered their love for diversity and species classification after helping out in the zoology lab as a teaching assistant, which has gone on to influence their future career path to become a college professor after graduate school. Audrey’s thesis topic revolved around the impacts of disrupting leaf litter communities in suburban areas, mainly through autumn leaf blowing, and especially on lawns here at Hendrix. They hope to study more about community ecology and ecosystem interactions as well as species diversity into the future of their academic career and beyond.
Kinley Robinson
Hometown: Humble, Texas
About: Kinley is interested in environmental studies because of her love for the environment and the care that she has for conservation. She thinks that we need to take care of the environment because we are not going to get another world, so it is important to not take for granted what we have now. This major has helped her learn more in depth about strategies that we can use to help with the environmental problems that have risen in an interdisciplinary way. She was able to study abroad and complete her internship with Human Nature Expeditions in Costa Rica. Her senior thesis will be about determining the most effective capacity constraint to implement into national parks that can combat the negative effects that over-visitation of parks causes. She decided that she wanted to write her thesis around the national parks because it is something that she cares about and is interested in. Her plan post-graduation is to attend graduate school and get a masters in fisheries and wildlife sciences for her future career as a game warden. She has been a member of the Women’s lacrosse team at Hendrix.
Landon Runion-Driskel
Hometown: Little Rock, Arkansas
Minor: Anthropology
About: Landon began working with solar panel technology in high school, competing in ISEF, Genius Olympiad and Spelman Clean Tech Competition. He would like to do interactive fieldwork after graduation, installing and developing newer solar panel technology and innovating current technology. There are a few places he is interested in working, especially at Scenic Hill Solar, where he worked during his later years at Hendrix as a construction intern, which has responsibilities in using Microsoft Office applications, as well as on-site responsibilities and repairs. He plays on the Hendrix Ultimate Frisbee team, where he has been a member since freshman year. He is an avid biker and hiker, and loves to hike all across Arkansas!
2025 EVST seniors gone fishin'!