Faces of UNC Asheville

Anna Lange

Living the Green Philosophy 

Anna Lange (Environmental Studies, class of 2008) is practicing what she preached at UNC Asheville as a campus leader in environmental stewardship. She recently launched her career in environmental activism as a Green Corps intern.

Hoping to make a career out of the environmental leadership she developed as a student, Lange is one of 27 interns selected from more than 2,000 applicants nationwide for the prestigious Green Corps internship program. During the three-week training at Suffolk University in Boston, she heard from experts like Sierra Club National Field Director Bob Bingaman and Green Corps alumnus Matt Ewing, who operates MoveOn’s Operation Democracy national field network. Representatives of nonprofits ranging from the Union of Concerned Scientists to Environmental America also helped train the Green Corps interns. 

“This was a crash course in learning to become an effective environmental organizer from some of the most talented issue experts in the country,” Lange says. At UNC Asheville she helped found the Student Environmental Center, funded by a student-initiated “green” fee, and was Student Government Association vice president and executive for sustainability affairs. She credits UNC Asheville’s commitment to environmental sustainability and professors in her Environmental Management and Policies concentration with focusing her own values and dedication to the cause.

From her base in Montpelier, Vt., she now works to create climate-change awareness groups on 10 New England college campuses for the National Wildlife Federation’s Power Vote program. “The goal for this election period was to get 1 million students to vote for a lean energy future. The message is simple but profound.” 

Lange, of Waynesville, is the second UNC Asheville graduate to be accepted into the highly competitive internship program. Green Corps alumna Elise Nabors (class of 2006) now works for the Sierra Club in Atlanta.