Julia Samson

Julia recently graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Development, while also studying Mandarin, Korean, and French. During her time at Columbia, Julia was captain of the NCAA D1 Women’s Swim Team, in addition to a 2018-2019 Executive Board member of Columbia’s LIGA Filipina. She was a Zhi-Xing US-China Young Leaders Fellow in Summer 2018 where she participated in geopolitical and economic development programming. In addition, Julia represented Columbia University in an international Circular Economy design thinking competition aiming to sustainably transform the retail industry. Julia has been part of Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society as a data analyst on the ACToday-Bangladesh project team working to improve climatic variability solutions for landholders in Bangladesh. She currently works as a Sustainable Finance Capital Markets Analyst at French investment bank, BNP Paribas.

Beyond her professional commitment, she has been involved in many youth engagement initiatives around the world. She served as a US Core lecturer in Harvard’s Summit for Young Leaders in China where she taught Climate Change-Development Economics. She will be returning to the program this summer as a Seminar Leader teaching a course analyzing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Youth Leadership. In addition, she served as an adult supervisor with MUN Impact for the SDG 4 Hub. As a Young Ocean Leader, she recently founded the Sustainable Ocean Alliance NYC Hub working to bring awareness and drive innovation for local marine ecosystems in the New York City region. She is also a listed mentor for The Trebuchet.

Julia is a self-taught artist working with scratchboards and oil paint. She opened SulitScratch on Etsy in January 2021 to help bring awareness and fundraise towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.