One of the most beautiful things about college is all of the different paths that people have taken to get here. No matter how you ended up at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, there is a common goal among most people here: to graduate with a degree in something they are passionate about. Olivia Messerges, who transferred to Illinois as a Junior after completing a year of community college in her hometown, did exactly that. 

For Olivia, Illinois has been the goal since the beginning, but there were some unexpected obstacles along the way. She recently graduated this spring along with the class of 2024. Her first year of college was in 2021 - a year when the world was still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With all the restrictions and changes taking place due to COVID, Olivia didn’t feel she would be able to experience all the aspects of what the university has to offer. On a positive note, she was offered a full-tuition scholarship by her local community college that was hard to pass up. Knowing she wanted to go to law school, Olivia chose to spend a year at community college and save the money of a year’s tuition. Even with these unexpected challenges and opportunities, her goal of coming to Illinois remained the same.

“I picked my classes pretty strategically to line up with the exact classes that I would need for the major that I was transferring into,” Olivia said about her time at community college. After completing her requirements a year early, she reapplied to Illinois and was accepted.

While the big campus atmosphere took some getting used to, the ACES community was essential to her finding her place here. 

“The university seemed so big, but ACES is a family and it made everything seem much smaller. Finding my place on campus helped to reduce that overwhelming feeling.”

Olivia graduated with a degree in environmental economics and policy at the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (ACE) and is extremely passionate about what she does. Growing up near a nature center and eventually working there, she has always felt a connection to the environment and natural world. Giving back to her community is important to her, and she wants to help others create their own connection with the environment.

“I want others to be able to experience nature and the environment in the way I have and understand the importance of protecting and being a steward of the land and not just exploiting it. I want to share that with everyone.”

Olivia’s actions on campus speak for her passion about the environment and giving back to her community. While a student, she worked as a packaging supervisor for Project4Less, an RSO that combats food waste by packaging leftover dining hall food and sending it to local food pantries. Olivia has also worked as an environmental policy intern for the Illinois Farm Bureau, which allowed her to directly apply the concepts she learned in class to real-world situations.

In addition to these activities, she has engaged in research with Illinois state climatologist Trent Ford in a project that focused on defining and analyzing climate-smart agriculture. Oliva also worked with the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE). She worked to meet the Illinois Climate Action Plan’s (iCAP) goals as an iCAP clerk, and she led a team with a focus on sustainable transportation. With Olivia’s career goal being in environmental law, her involvement in extracurricular activities and academic success have secured her a seat at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s law school.

To say the least, Olivia has made the most out of her time at Illinois. While she may not have had the “traditional” start to her college career, she has seized every opportunity available to her and is well on her way to long and fulfilling career.