Graduate student Corina Newsome on encouraging the Black community to engage in nature

Corina Newsome is a grad student working to bring nature and its lessons closer to all people.

TheGrio collaborated with The Weather Channel and Pattrn to share their series Faces of Change – people of color doing the work to promote green solutions and sustainable communities.

Corina Newsome, 27, is a graduate student studying biology at Georgia Southern University and community engagement manager for Georgia Audubon a member-supported, non-profit organization dedicated to building places where birds and people thrive. 

The organization is a “thriving, bird-focused organization that combines serious conservation, education, and community engagement with activities that build community and foster the joy of birding.”

Photo Credit: Katherine Arentzen, Georgia Southern

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Newsome gained interest in birds after taking an Ornithology (the study of birds) class.

“My approach is to plug people who are part of these marginalized communities economically, socially into the natural world, because it’s going to be better for them,” says Newsome. “It’s going to be better for us, and I know that from experience.”

Photo Credit: Quentin Thompson

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Newsome adds, “I always want to make it clear, especially the people who are from a location like me, inner-city, people of color, people from low-income backgrounds, that you don’t have to come from a rich white rural setting. Exploration is for you, too.”

Check out the full video for more.

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