Noa Bridson is a student in the Global Resource Systems (GRS) degree in the faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia.   From a very young age Noa was a fiery activist, convincing her friends at 11 years old to sign an anti-consumerism pledge, leading her first school walk-out at 13 years old and founding two environmental organizations in high school. However, at 19 her life and aspirations were flipped upside-down when her mom was diagnosed with colon cancer.  The next three years radically changed Noa’s perspective on life as she spent most of her time taking care of her mother and building friendships with other chronically ill patients.  After losing her mom, Noa realized that the systems of social and environmental oppression that she so passionately fought against were already broken and what they really needed, like herself, was to be healed and rebuilt.  After returning to school, Noa started a housing cooperative and switched into agricultures sciences where she dedicated her academics to understanding how to create sustainable and equitable food systems. In her summers between university Noa has worked on three different farms and loves to be able to provide healthy organic produce to others. Over the last two years she’s lost two more close family members but is endlessly grateful for the strength and support her community provides her. In her role as a teaching assistant for the GRS program, Noa’s has had the privilege of returning the gift of community to others as she facilitates a space forstudents to come together, support, and learn from one another.