Meet René LaPointe Jameson!
Pronouns: She series
Class Year: 2022
Hometown: Greenwich, Connecticut
Major: Environmental Engineering
Contact Me: rene.lapointe_jameson@tufts.edu
Favorite Research Experience
In summer of 2020, I was supposed to go to Kibale National Park in Uganda to do research on chimpanzee habitat conservation and youth leadership development under Professor Machanda through the Tufts Global Research Assistant Program (GRAP). Due to COVID-19, I am now doing this work remotely. Intersectional conservation and environmental education work have been passions of mine since I was 14 and became an ambassador of The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) on the Roots & Shoots National Youth Leadership Council. Through JGI, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate on global environmental initiatives and organize local projects to address social issues in my community including building a community garden, aiding in banning single-use plastic bags in my town, and organizing annual food drives collecting over 15,000 non-perishable goods and providing meals to over 400 families, and more. My activist passions are focused on environmental justice and racial justice, the intersection of which is addressing environmental racism. I plan to apply environmental engineering with a race and justice lens to address health, resource, and opportunity disparities that develop as a consequence of structural racism and social inequality.
Favorite Extracurricular Activity
I am a tour guide, member of Tufts Dance Collective, and a member of the Association of Multiracial People at Tufts (AMPT). My favorite extracurricular and aspect of my Tufts identity is how I am a Tisch Scholar. Through the Tisch Scholars program, I am receiving a unique leadership development education to gain further tools to enact change in my future career. My Tisch Scholar internship is with the Office for Campus Life where I am evaluating and improving the identity programming of the first-year pre-orientation programs. I hope to foster a more respectful culture at Tufts by better equipping incoming Jumbos with the tools to discuss and address social injustice. Hopefully, if you come to Tufts, you’ll experience the program I created!
Advice for Prospective Students
For prospective Black Jumbos, if you decide to come to Tufts please remember that you earned it. Don’t let anyone make you think otherwise. We need to continue to unapologetically take up space and make space for more Black Jumbos.