After spending her first year at Occidental şŁ˝ÇÂŰĚł in Los Angeles, Brandes transferred to Georgetown University, a place she believed she was meant to be. Born and raised in DC, Brandes felt like she belonged in the city and at Georgetown.

“I felt like I was a part of the community, and so that’s what really locked it in,” she said. “I really feel people look out for each other in this city in a way that is different than any other place I’ve been, and you feel that just walking down the streets here. I missed that a lot.”

Brandes will graduate this May from the şŁ˝ÇÂŰĚł of Arts & Sciences with an interdisciplinary studies major focused on urban sustainability. In her three years on the Hilltop, Brandes has been studying the theoretical frameworks of place and the process of urban places. 

After graduation, she plans to backpack along the Appalachian Trail in Maine before moving to New York City in the fall to work in urban planning or urban design. One day, she hopes to own her own design firm.

“Cities are really complex, and there are a lot of things that are planned in cities, and there are a lot of things that happen spontaneously,” Brandes said. “And I think both things can be so beautiful.”

An Interdisciplinary Approach

Brandes arrived at Georgetown as a government major, but she knew even then that she wanted to study cities and the environment. 

She noticed that many classes explored those areas of study, just not within a single major. That’s when she discovered the şŁ˝ÇÂŰ̳’s interdisciplinary studies major, where students can design their own academic programs around research questions. The major has existed in the şŁ˝ÇÂŰĚł for almost 50 years.

“It was an opportunity where I really took a chance to go out on my own and do something bold,” Brandes said. “And it was such a good decision.”

She made a list of potential classes she would want to take, and each one, she said, was “super intentional.”

“My first impression of Justine was that she was a remarkably curious and composed student,” said , an associate dean in the şŁ˝ÇÂŰĚł and the . “Justine is unhurried in her consideration of questions, directions and opportunities.”

Brandes said one of the most important courses she took was Urban Inequality with , an associate professor in the Department of Sociology. In that seminar, Brandes read works from writers like W.E.B. Du Bois and about theoretical approaches in urban cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, DC.

“I was most impressed by her enthusiasm for the course content, engagement with the readings, active participation in class and her generosity with her colleagues,” Shedd said. “It was truly gratifying to be a part of Justine’s academic journey.”

Other courses Brandes took included Water with , a professor of geography and the vice dean for undergraduate affairs in the School of Foreign Service, and Urban Ecology with , the associate vice president for strategic initiatives in the Office of the Provost and an adjunct professor in the Department of Biology. 

“Making your own way in an interdisciplinary studies major takes vision and passion, and Justine has both,” Whitmer said.

Brandes was also part of the , which introduced her to a community centered around urban studies. Another experience Brandes cherished on the Hilltop was serving as a board member for the student-run Georgetown University Farmers’ Market that features more than 15 vendors.

“Being able to see everyone gather in one space on Wednesdays and see the entire community come together gave me so much purpose as a Georgetown student,” she said.

A Connection to Place

Brandes had been thinking about her senior thesis ever since her sophomore year.

It started with a curiosity about what makes a sense of place. She asked herself: What makes DC so different from L.A.? What makes L.A. so different from Berlin? It goes back, Brandes explained, to the Latin term, genius loci, which means “spirit of a place.”

“This has really been a labor of love,” she said.

She eventually focused her thesis, “Searching for a Lost River: Remaking the River That Made L.A.,” on the Los Angeles River, a 51-mile river in L.A. that is nearly completely encased in concrete, and a plan by the late architect Frank Gehry and his team to design a public space near the Rio Hondo confluence in South Gate, California.

“The Los Angeles River is mostly seen as a movie backdrop, rather than a really important ecological asset to the city,” Brandes said. “That topic really fired me up.”

Brandes visited the site in January and returned with an understanding that the proposed design plan for a cultural center and platform parks by Gehry’s team has been polarizing. 

“What my thesis gets down to is belonging and connection to place and how that is 100% tied to the natural environment,” Brandes said. “And you cannot ignore the natural environment.”

Ultimately, her thesis argues that the platform parks that would be built on the top of the river would create a sense of placelessness for residents along the river, Brandes said, because it conceals the river, rather than re-naturalizing it. Brandes also argues that because Gehry is an architect and not an urbanist or community planner, he approached the river as a design opportunity rather than an ecological system, prioritizing bold structures over restoration.

“You have to engage with local communities in which you intend to design for,” she said. “When local communities feel ignored, it ends up not being good for anyone.”

Everything Is Nature

Brandes’ sense of place is rooted in the outdoors. 

Around the age of 10, her parents took her to the Grand Canyon National Park. In addition to the awe of seeing the natural wonder, they hiked and backpacked the . 

“I think that was my first experience of seeing nature in a way that really humbled me and made me feel small,” Brandes said. “And since then, it just took off.”

She went on an Outward Bound rafting trip, which eventually led to a 30-day backpacking trip during high school in the Teton Range in Wyoming with NOLS, a nonprofit outdoor education school. Navigating with only a compass and map on that trip solidified Brandes’ commitment to the environment. 

“I decided for the rest of my life, this is going to be something I fight for,” she said.

And while she has a deep commitment to the environment, Brandes has always loved cities and the human connections found in them. Her academic interests were bolstered by study abroad experiences in Bilbao, Spain and Copenhagen, Denmark. 

“I think Bilbao helped me start thinking about urban processes and urban change,” Brandes said. “Copenhagen really opened my eyes to sophisticated design and architecture.”

In DC, she often visits Rock Creek Park. Part of her academic growth, Brandes said, is the realization that nature is all around us. 

“I think a lot of times we think when we’re in a city that we aren’t in nature, and nature is something that you can distinctly step into, but in reality, there’s no difference,” she said. “Everything is nature all the time.”

As she prepares to leave Georgetown, Brandes said that her liberal arts education has inspired a commitment to service and helping others. It’s also taught her to always push the status quo.

“As a community, we push each other,” Brandes said. “We’re not afraid to disagree with each other in the classroom, and I think that’s really beautiful. I’ll always take that with me for the rest of my life. No matter what situation I’m in, I will take a step back and really think: How can I push this situation? How can I grow while supporting others? How can we grow together as a community?”

Reflecting on the Hilltop

For the past three years, Brandes has made the most of her time at Georgetown. Here are some of her favorites around campus and the city she calls home:

Favorite spot on campus: Healy Lawn. Way back on that one bench between the John Carroll statue and Lauinger Library. You can look up at the tower. I think I’ve spent the most time reflecting there. I have the most memories there. 

Favorite class that you didn’t expect you’d enjoy: I took Acting I this semester with Professor . It was totally out of my comfort zone, but super impactful. Amazing class. I would have never taken that if it hadn’t come on my radar.

Favorite local restaurant and order: Teaism in Dupont Circle. I would get the spicy glass noodles with a green tea lassi and one of the cookies for dessert.

Favorite Georgetown tradition: Not walking on the seal outside of Healy is really funny. They always say once you get here, don’t step on it, or you’re not going to graduate. I don’t know if I believe in it, but I’m not gonna test it. 

Favorite thing to do off campus: Just walk to Dupont Circle and sit in the circle. I love doing that. I think it really connects me to DC beyond Georgetown. I really just enjoy sitting there on a nice day.

(Top photo by Maria Sophia Dyer)

His thesis took the form of a brief, four-episode podcast miniseries called . In it, Akil invites listeners to think differently about peace, sustainability, and the world’s social and environmental challenges. He does so by introducing comparative case study research he conducted on two environmental organizations that use gardening, farming, and other land-based projects to positively impact their respective communities (in Columbia, Maryland and Cape Town, South Africa).

Listen now to see how these organizations are making their communities more resilient against oppressive systems!

Throughout the last four years, Cole has studied community-based, restorative agriculture efforts and believes that they’re a tangible way for regular people to change the world. 

“I don’t think everyone should be a farmer,” laughed Cole. “That’s not my vision of the world, but it would be good if more people were at least exposed to gardening. I want people to understand that land is something that’s more than just an asset to buy — it’s not a dead thing on a balance sheet, it’s teeming with life and deeply connected to everyone.”

Since his first year as a Hoya, Cole has been involved with the Community Ecology Institute (CEI), a nonprofit organization in Columbia, Maryland that runs a 6.4-acre organic farm, which serves as a community center, art space and locus for all those interested in imagining a better tomorrow. Today, Cole serves as a member of the CEI Board of Directors. Four years ago, that would have seemed like a crazy idea.

Finding Farming Fascinating 

Cole didn’t apply to Georgetown with the expectation that he’d study, and become a proponent for, community gardening. Rather, attending a school in Washington, DC, he figured, would be a good way to become involved with policy or international affairs. Maybe, someday, that would lead to law school. 

He remembers the moment that his undergraduate career was changed forever: It was over Zoom and he was sitting at home in Miami, Florida, listening to a guest lecture in an introductory course on environmental studies. 

“We had a guest speaker, Dr. Chiara D’Amore, who is the executive director of the Community Ecology Institute, and she blew my mind,” remembered Cole. “I didn’t know anything about farming, nonprofit work, regenerative agriculture or community-based land initiatives, but after she was done speaking I knew that I had to find a way to be connected to all of it.”

It was the height of the pandemic and Cole knew there was no chance of connecting in person so he sent her an email: “I was like, hey, I don’t know how I’m going to get involved because I’m in Florida and you’re in Maryland, and there’s a global pandemic, but I want to do something.”

Eventually, D’Amore and Cole landed on an idea: He could create a podcast for the institute. , the byproduct of their collaboration, shares stories from an array of experts and practitioners on the frontlines of the climate crisis who are building optimism and community through their work in the environment, health, education, and equity. As he began building out the podcast, Cole couldn’t wait to get to Maryland and learn more. 

Over the next two summers, he did just that. Cole was able to get his hands dirty through a Royden B. Davis Fellowship. The fellowship, which is awarded by the şŁ˝ÇÂŰĚł of Arts & Sciences, empowers undergraduates to pursue transformative educational experiences through fieldwork, labwork, independent study, unpaid internships and all kinds of real-world learning. As a Davis Fellow, Cole served as the co-coordinator for a summer internship program at CEI’s Freetown Farm, where he supervised high school and college-aged interns and continued building his own knowledge base around sustainable agriculture practices that promote biodiversity. 

“It was at Freetown Farm that I realized that political science and international affairs were not going to accomplish what I wanted to do,” reflected Cole. “It was there that I realized all these things were intersecting — environmental studies, environmental science and community organizing alongside notions of peace and justice. All these seemingly disparate ideas were coming together in this place and being put into practice.”

Akil decided that he’d spend the remainder of his time as an undergraduate trying to figure out exactly how all those things could fit together and, importantly, be replicated elsewhere. He found the interdisciplinary studies major, which allowed Cole to thread that needle between his different interests and areas of inquiry.   

“I felt more intellectually equipped to study and practice sustainability, ecology, conservation and agriculture,” said Cole. 

International Communities, Local Perspectives

Thrilled by what he’d learned at Freetown Farm, Cole wanted to broaden the lens through which he was studying regenerative agriculture and community-based land initiatives. Georgetown’s Social Transformation in South Africa study abroad course and a Frederick Douglass Global Fellowship allowed Cole to spend the summer before his senior year in Cape Town, South Africa. 

In Cape Town, Cole studied capacity-building work with a couple of community-based organizations, including . An organization that provides clinical, medical and social care for the local LGBTQ community, members of Triangle Project realized that they could be doing more to get healthy, sustainable food into the hands of those in need. And so the grassroots group, Queer Food Growing Collective, was born. 

As he listened to stories from gardeners in the Collective, Cole was pointed towards a separate nonprofit organization: .

“Neighbourhood Gardens runs several community gardens within the Cape Town area,” said Cole. “These spaces bring people together to grow food, learn how to cultivate and build healthier communities.”

One particularly stunning transformation came about after the organization transformed a former garbage heap into a community space full of Indigenous plants. That transformation, centered around community and land, is what excites Cole the most. 

“There’s this magic that happens when people come together and they’re engaged in these collaborative activities,” said Cole. “I’ve seen this magic in Columbia, Maryland and in Cape Town. At the center of it is people working in community gardens and growing food.”

Cole, who is still producing the podcast for CEI and beating the drum for all things gardening, is excited to continue turning the world green after graduating. 

“We’re disconnected from a lot of things but on a fundamental level we are disconnected from land and the things that humans need to survive,” said Cole. “And I think that’s disconcerting. But it was heartening to see, in two completely different contexts people are coming together to better understand how we are supposed to survive and bring people back together. 

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