Transit as a Tool for Community and Climate

1. Ivy Kwok is a fifth-year PhD student in Environmental Engineering here at UCLA. Her research is on natural and engineered biodegradation of groundwater contaminants. She is a first-generation college student with a passion for mentorship and all things interdisciplinary. Outside of the lab / classroom, you’ll often find her on board public transit – she loves going on food adventures with loved ones, pogo-sticking, attending her favorite dance cardio workout, and staying active in the sustainability community!

Ivy’s Leaders in Sustainability project is entitled “Transfers of Knowledge: Community Connections via Transit Trips”, and it encapsulates all the times throughout her graduate school journey where she took her family, friends, peers, and students on transit trips around Los Angeles. Her goal was to welcome them into her world of sustainability / transit enthusiasm, teach them how to use the bus / train, and get acquainted with the rich culture of LA County – all accessibly for free / at low prices!

2) Truthfully, this work came to me so naturally that it started out more as a hobby / passion project, but I’m grateful to have been able to transform the compilation into my leadership project! I believe my project is important in contributing to cleaner air, as well as in empowering everyone around me to feel confident in their navigational intuition.

3) So far, I have reached 140 people via my transit trips – (25) undergraduate students during the years I taught my self-designed GE Cluster seminar (Birthdays & Earth Days: Environmental Impacts on Aging & Sustainable Solutions Ahead); (105) graduate students during our Graduate Student Orientation transit trips in 2023 and 2024; (4) loved ones / friends during the “Dance Cardio w/o the Car” event I hosted as part of MoveLA’s first-annual SoCal Transit Week; (4) peers in SWE-LA (Society of Women Engineers, Los Angeles) when I hosted a tour of the Aviation / Century Metro Station grand opening; and my (2) parents, who I took to go see the Metro Regional Connector grand opening and who I took with me to Active San Gabriel Valley’s GoCoastal Transit Tours!

4) I love bringing people and things who I love into my work, and the organizations I had the pleasure of collaborating with (and amplifying the platforms of) were: UCLA’s Graduate Student Resource Center, Active San Gabriel Valley (ActiveSGV), the South Pasadena Community Garden, La Monarca Bakery, KINRGY Studios West Hollywood, and SWE-LA (Society of Women Engineers, Los Angeles).

5) My main contribution was crafting and leading transit trips, which involved getting everyone together and finding accessible transit routes for our adventures!

6) Yes! Some living documents / media I have helped create / contribute to are the Society of Women Engineers’ conference transit guide, various reels on the UCLA Transportation Instagram page (@uclacommute), and an episode of “Nobody Drives in LA” that I was a guest on!