Alumni Spotlight: Cora Swanson ’17

Meet Cora Swanson ‘17, an Environmental Studies and Policy Studies major. The farm was a major reason Cora decided to come to Dickinson and she volunteered at the very first Weed and Feed of her freshman year. Cora enjoyed visiting the farm as an accepted student, meeting some of the apprentices, and thought it was an awesome place. She became a student farmer her second semester and continued throughout her senior year. For Cora, the farm sparked a passion for regenerative agriculture and gave her great friends who she is still close to. Some of her favorite farm memories include tomato wars after harvest (only throwing the unsellable ones), chats and playing games while working, wrestling the sheep to give them manicures, and meeting her amazing fellow farmers and volunteers older and younger than her. 

After graduating from Dickinson, Cora worked in the Sierra Nevadas as the nature director at a family camp then accepted a digital strategist job at a small political consulting firm called Saguaro Strategies in the Bay Area. By doing online fundraising and advertising for democratic candidates in the 2018 midterms, she got an insight into the world of politics and saw several of her clients do good work in Congress. Deciding it was time for a change, Cora decided to move to Brooklyn, NY and currently works to create and curate content for a website on soil health policy and legislation. Here she works to consolidate healthy policies from around the country to ease the bottleneck of information and support states adopt new progressive policies. Cora has enjoyed getting back into the world of regenerative agriculture and is hopeful about being part of the movement supporting the adoption of healthy soil practices across the United States. Future ultimate goals include making sure farmers and ranchers have the tools needed to transition to regenerative agriculture to heal our planet and ensure food security in a changing climate. Cora is also considering hopping on a 2020 campaign because of her belief that there are no good policies without good actors in government.