First-year environmental student plans to serve her community
RueShandiin Jim is the third child in her family to attend the U of A.
The University of Arizona welcomed its largest and most diverse class in university history for the 2024-2025 academic year. More than 9,300 first-year students – including a record 4,900 Arizona residents – started their Wildcat journeys in August 2024. In the College of Engineering, 65% of first-year students are from Arizona, an increase from last year’s 61%.
First-year student RueShandiin Jim plans to earn an environmental engineering degree to serve her community of Aneth/Montezuma Creek, Utah, in the Navajo Nation.
“In the Navajo culture, we center all things – such as our clan system, stories and prayers – around life and the land,” she said. “So, being highly connected with the environment, I fear that the area I’ve grown up in needs assistance.”
With many oil rigs and petroleum fields in her community, the quality of air, water and vegetation is growing worse by the year, Jim said.
I thought it was normal for many years until I heard the stories of past farms that grew corn, squash and melons," she said.
Jim appreciates the many opportunities available to U of A students, such as clubs and internships. The most important factor in her college choice was the university’s collaboration with Arizona’s tribal communities, she said.
“Not many institutions collaborate with Indigenous communities the way the U of A does.”