For Emilly Fan, concentrating in Environmental Science and Public Policy feels urgent and consequential. It brought her all the way from her home in New Zealand. “[It] was the main drawing card in flying to study here,” said the Quincy House senior. “Even having a nocturnal class schedule last year when I was back home in Auckland during COVID didn’t detract from the incredible caliber of classes and the importance of the content.” Fan’s deep commitment to the environment, which will find her in Glasgow this week as part of Harvard’s contingent at the U.N.’s COP26 climate summit, has been fostered by her concentration, which was created 25 years ago to provide the foundation for thinking about the complex tangle of issues involved in safeguarding life on the planet. “It marries the science with the policy and, given how intertwined the two are, I knew this is what I want to be studying. There’s a lot of passion behind the youth movement, which is such an important force to harness, but I’ve been conscious of building upon that energy while ensuring that I also have the knowledge and practical skills to call myself a pragmatic and holistic environmentalist,” Fan said.