Emilia grew up in Decatur, Georgia, right outside of the heart of Atlanta. Even though she is a city girl, some of her earliest memories are playing in the creek behind her house with her sister. Her mother is a farm girl from Kentucky and her dad is an immigrant from Cuba, allowing her to grow up in a culturally mixed household. This instilled in her a love for the environment and international travel. She has traveled to Chennai, India with other UGA engineering faculty and students to research emerging environmental and energy issues and has lived abroad in the Costa Rican cloud forest. Currently, Emilia is in her senior year of undergrad at the University of Georgia, pursuing her bachelors of science in Environmental Engineering. She is currently applying to graduate programs that will help broaden her skills in environmental policy and management. Emilia is passionate about taking technical knowledge and applying it to solve broad societal issues. She is not quite sure where her life after graduation will lead her, but she does know that her dream is to live and work on an island  where winter will be a memory of the past.