Over the past summer, I participated in an internship program at Fallingwater, a UNESCO World Heritage Site designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I was a land stewardship intern, and I was appointed to this position by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the organization that owns Fallingwater and the surrounding land.

This position began with me being in the midst of the hiring process, only to receive an email stating that the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk, was cutting funding to my AmeriCorps program in half. I was told that I would not get the job because of the cut.

Over the course of that day, I was distraught and emailed Fallingwater and the WPC, to see if there was any way that I could retain my position. Within a week, I had my position restored. The conservancy hired me. I am extremely grateful for their support, and I am repulsed by our administration for cutting the budget to a program that wishes to sustain the land we walk on, the water we drink and the air we breathe.

I then left for Pennsylvania with hope in my heart.

As a stewardship intern, I helped to keep the trails clear, tackle invasive plant issues and reset some of the trail blazes. All of my work was done surrounded by the mountain laurel, wood fern, salamanders, old-growth hemlocks, the bright yellow sun that made the environment glow and the rain that saturated the forest.

This experience allowed me to explore the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, a land that contains abundant beauty and biodiversity. I interpreted this area as our harmonious existence with nature. It embodied a loving bond between nature and the creatures that walk within it.

The towering land speaks and asserts that our job as human beings is to mirror nature’s benevolence and steward the land in a way that sustains coexistence between humans and the Earth. This experience was elemental in shaping how I view our surrounding environment.

I worked with a UNESCO World Heritage Architect, Bisrat Engida, who was a great friend and mentor throughout my time as an intern and during my art installation.

Specifically, Engida was the supervisor of the architects who were conducting a restoration on one of the terraces at the main Fallingwater house. In the first quarter of my internship, I decided that I would like to create an art installation on one of my favorite trail systems, the Bear Run trail system, which intersects Fallingwater. I proposed my idea to the WPC, and the idea was accepted. Although, by the time this proposal had gotten accepted, I was four weeks out from finishing my internship. I had four weeks to create an estimated four by 20-foot mural. From that point on, I would do my work on the trails, then get home and immediately start working on the murals.

Finally, on the second-to-last day of my internship, I finally got to install the panels in their entirety. Engida was a key component of this process as he helped carry, push, and install the panels into the bridge that they were appended to.

He gave critique to me during the process of creating and painting the panels, then his architectural experience gave guidance during the process of attaching them to the bridge. This was not a process I could have done alone, and Engida offered so much of his time just to assist me with my art.

While strenuous, this was the most fulfilling process that I have ever experienced. Being surrounded by the land that speaks to me, and then going home and being able to speak for the land using art, made me feel connected to our environment in a way that planted my soul in the dirt I walked on.

Through art and sustainability work, I was able to reciprocate the inherent love that the Earth provides us. All I want to do is create a sustainable world that starts with the reconnection of people to their environment. People finding sacred beauty through the love that stems from the environment was ever-present within the institution and ecology surrounding Fallingwater.