Lucas Bleyle

2022 Udall Scholarship Honorable Mention

Hometown

Ames, IA

Major

English; Creative Writing; Sustainable Food and Farm Systems

College

College of Liberal Arts; College of Agriculture; John Martinson Honors College

 

The Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation, established in 1992, recognizes college sophomores and juniors for leadership, public service and commitment to issues related to the environment or American Indian nations.

Not every writer’s dream is to become a farmer; but Lucas Bleyle chose a triple major that reveals how he is motivated to lead through his voice by writing to understand our relationship to the land. Lucas was awarded Honorable Mention by the Udall Foundation for his commitment to promoting developing production systems for ecological farming both regionally and beyond through advocacy and communication.

At Purdue, Lucas not only integrated his environmental interests into his writing, but also helped create a writing job for climate journalism at the Purdue Exponent news organization. Acting as a change agent is not new to Lucas, who wrote and published a novel about Climate Change as an eighth grader. While he maintains all humility about his first climate fiction novel, The Scavengers, he notes that he continues to write in this genre with a new novel for his Creative Scholarly Project requirement.

In addition to practicing research-based journalism on campus, Lucas gained experience applying evidence-based practices that reduce emissions and enhance climate resiliency in the local food system of his hometown. Working on an organic farm in Ames, Iowa, Lucas created a small farm business by developing a “caterpillar tunnel” system that generated a new source of income with late season tomatoes and ginger. He also served as a member of the Ames Climate Action Team, where not unlike his contributions at Purdue, Lucas continued to use his communication skills and knowledge of the environment to move his community toward action.