Sophy Fields grew up in Bremen, a coal mining town in Western Kentucky’s Muhlenberg County, and her father works for Warrior Coal.
But all the mining in Bremen is done underground, so it wasn’t until she went on a field trip to Eastern Kentucky with other students from the Environmental Geology and Environmental Law and Policy classes in the spring of 2023 that she saw
the effects of mountain-top-removal coal mining.
“Coal mining [in Appalachia] causes a large amount of ecological and health damage,” she wrote in a blog about the experience. “The people in these regions face the damaging health effects of the coal industry and see environmental degradation
in their own backyards.”
"Through the variety of classes, coursework and hands-on experiences at Bellarmine, I am well prepared to take the next steps toward my career."
The overnight trip was just one of the immersive experiences that Sophy, an Environmental Justice and Sustainability major with a minor in Biology, had during her time at Bellarmine.
“In my Geology class with Dr. Kate Bulinski, we were able to visit many local companies and organizations in the environmental field, such as a wastewater treatment plant, a limestone quarry, and a landfill,” she said.
She also participated in two study abroad trips—to San Salvador and Belize—through biology classes.
“I feel like through the variety of classes, coursework and hands-on experiences at Bellarmine, I am well prepared to take the next steps toward my career.”
She plans to work in environmental education and interpretation and is currently applying for internships through the Student Conservation Association. Her dream is to be an interpretive park ranger out West, perhaps at Redwood National Park in California.
As a first-generation college student, she said she benefited from Bellarmine’s Pioneer Scholars program. She is graduating a year early thanks to the 47 credit hours she earned through dual-credit classes in high school and AP exam scores.
And while Bellarmine was her top college choice, she said she wouldn’t have been able to attend without the scholarships she received, including the Horrigan Scholarship and Presidential Scholarship from Bellarmine and an award from the Alliance
Coal Scholars Program for the children of Alliance Coal employees.
Coal mining didn’t really influence her career path, though, she said.
“My family is a very outdoorsy family, so I knew from a young age that I wanted a career that was outdoors. At fifth-grade graduation, we had to say what we wanted to do, and I said I wanted to be an ecologist.”