Annie is a QuestBridge Scholar in the College of Arts and Sciences studying Urban Studies with a minor in Landscape Studies. Her academic interests are rooted in her lived experiences growing up across low-income, immigrant neighborhoods in New York City, where she was exposed to how built environments shape opportunity and belonging. These experiences inform her pursuit in how race, class, and power operate through urban systems, with a particular focus on how social infrastructure can be designed to support equity and long-term well-being.
At Penn, Annie engages in West Philadelphia through food access, environmental education, and youth mentorship. She works on- and off-campus as logistics coordinators for produce distribution initiatives, helping to sustain programs that address food insecurity while creating experiential learning opportunities for students. She also serves on the Netter Center Student Advisory Board to strengthen university and community partnerships. Her broader background includes leading garden design workshops, where she co-developed multi-week ecological garden design curricula serving over 20 community sites and schools across New York, including her own authorship of two gardens. As an organizer for ReWild, she also supported programming the growing and harvesting of thousands of pounds of organic produce to local food pantries.
As a Fellow, Annie approaches dialogue as an essential practice for navigating differences and building more inclusive communities. Drawing from her experiences in classrooms and community settings, she is interested in how dialogue can foster accountability, trust, and relationship building across identities and experiences. She is particularly excited to explore how public sites such as schools, urban gardens, and parks can serve as foundations for democratic engagement and collective care.