Kyle Kline HonorsStudent who graduated with a 4.0 grade point average Environmental StudiesAnd Political ScienceThe spring 2022 SBS Outstanding Senior Award was presented to a student in Theatre Arts with a minor in Theatre Arts. The award goes to a senior graduating with outstanding achievement, a history in active citizenship on campus or in the community, and a demonstrated ability for leadership.
Diana Liverman Regents Professor in Environmental Studies, stated that Kyle is passionate and articulate, dedicated, and a generous leader when he comes to environmental problems. School of Geography, Development & Environment. They draw from their theater training in leadership and public speaking and are particularly concerned about including everyone in the activities they coordinate.
It’s a great honor and something that I didnt expect,” Kyle said about the Outstanding Senior Award. I am grateful to be able to represent the college as an openly lesbian individual and as a student representative on campus.
Kyle was a Udall Scholar at the University of Arizona, an Arizona Flinn Scholar and a member Phi Beta Kappa. His majors were chosen to learn about environmental justice, human impacts of climate changes, law, and policy. Because they were a huge theatre fan since high school, they added Theatre Arts to their minor.
Kyle studied climate fiction and how film and theatre can communicate climate issues to different audiences for their Honors thesis, Changing Narratives in Cli-fi: Creativity as Climate Communication.
My thesis affirmed that people won’t listen to scary predictions and statistics about climate change. Kyle stated that it doesn’t inspire people to take action and makes them afraid. However, if people are able to engage with a subject through song and dance, then they can relate emotionally to it.
Kyle performed a drag performance inspired by their thesis, Hot on Your Heels, as part of Earth Day In the Arts District events.
Kyle stated that I was able do a 20-minute drag performance about the environment for 200 people. It was a dream come to reality.
After studying abroad in China, Kyle was inspired by urban inequalities to take up environmental activism. They returned to Arizona to find that the Global Climate Strikes were taking place, and they decided they would get involved locally.
Kyle founded the Tucson division of Arizona Youth Climate Coalition. There, they helped to propel the City of Tucson’s Climate Change Emergency Declaration through strikes, interviews with local NPR stations and collaboration with city officials.
Kyle was also the Administrative vice president for ASUA (Associated Students of the University of Arizona), headed the Waste Reduction Committee for UArizonas Students for Sustainability and co-founded UAZDivest UArizona’s fossil-fuel divestment campaign.
Kyle interned at Arizona Senate in spring 2020. He worked with senators and staff to create policy briefings on energy and natural resources.
Kyle is also an SBS Ambassador. SBS’s interdisciplinarity is my favorite aspect. You can’t study a field in isolation; you need to take into account all the factors and variables.
Next? Kyle has been accepted at Oxford University and will now be pursuing his MSc in Environmental Change and Management.
I really wanted the UK. Kyle stated that there are more robust civil systems to help with environmental management. I wanted to see the world from a different perspective. Also, British drag is amazing! Drag as a political force has a rich history in the UK.
Kyle would like long-term to work for a federal agency and a nongovernmental organization in policy, focusing on climate action plan for cities or states. They are also interested to run for public office, including the Arizona Corporation Commission to fix some rules on renewable energy that are in dire need of reform.
Kyle stated that I have been very fortunate in my undergrad experiences to discover where my passions, talents and skills can be used in the environmental space. I hope people will do the same, and work together to create a more sustainable world. It is a necessity, my dear.
