D. Liam Nigro
School of Environment and Natural Resources
Environment, Economy, Development and Sustainability - Sustainability and Business
Cleveland, OH
2023 Distinguished Senior Award Recognition Reception Program (.pdf)
2023 Distinguished Senior Award Recipient Reception Poster (.pdf)
Transferring from John Carroll University to OSU his sophomore year led Liam Nigro to his greatest sense of accomplishment. Coming from the small university in northeast Ohio to OSU’s Columbus campus represented a major change socially, academically, and environmentally for Liam. The experience taught him self-reliance and challenged his concept of personal identity. Liam reflected on that leap of faith his sophomore year, saying, “Rediscovering who I was in a new space led me to have better trust in my intuition, leading to a feedback loop of putting myself in environments that challenged and developed my array of interests.”
Adding a creative writing minor has opened new avenues for Liam to pursue his passions and exercise his creativity. He found ways to channel that creativity into his major as well. Liam has earned a pair of grants through Ohio State Energy Partners and The Sustainability Institute to construct a humanities-based sustainability project documenting Columbus’s green spaces and examining the intersection of outdoor access and community resilience through the medium of poetry. Liam considers the project
his most rewarding undergraduate experience. As President of the SENR Peer Mentors program, Liam has led with vision, initiative, creativity, and authenticity. He designed a retreat for fellow mentors and facilitated the use of a collaborative mural as an intentionsetting exercise for the group. He planned and executed a semester-long training series for his fellow mentors working in the SENR survey courses. Liam’s tenure as leader of the program has been marked by his passion for inclusion, sustainability, representation, and community, as well as his thoughtful and empathetic individual mentorship of fellow students.
Through Liam’s undergraduate research position, he provided support for the Blueprint Columbus stormwater research project, gaining valuable lab and fieldwork experience while managing data collection for over 12 research sites. He held internships at Telluride Academy in Colorado, and with Rust Belt Riders and John Carroll University in Cleveland. Liam’s internships have focused on sustainability and business development.
Liam would like to acknowledge the mentorship of Dr. Greg Hitzhusen and Esther Debusk. Liam shares, “These two people are extremely integral to my development at The Ohio State University. Esther has been my supervisor as the Peer Mentor President
for the last year and Greg has been the advisor for the poetry project I have worked on since last spring. They are mentors who ignited a fire within me to utilize OSU’s resources and pursue opportunities which would whet my skills. The impact of Esther and Greg to my experience as an undergrad at OSU has imparted the importance of mentorship and support.”
This summer, Liam will travel to Europe to hike the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage route that passes through Southern France and Northern Spain. Afterward, he plans to seek out professional opportunities.
Service, involvement, and accolades: Jacobson Short Story Award | AROUSE OSU | Students Advocating for Food Equity | Franklinton Farms | SENR Peer Mentor, president