Sophie Beauchesne ’23, joins Peace Corps to serve in Paraguay

Sophie Beauchesne ’23, who was a double major in environmental studies and sociology and anthropology with a minor in biology, is preparing to leave for Paraguay to serve in the Peace Corps.

While in the Peace Corps, Beauchesne will be participating in the program as a community environmental promoter in order to inform others about environmental education and sustainable forestry. She will be specifically engaging youth in environmental stewardship by promoting zero waste campaigns and managing tree nurseries.

After she serves within the Peace Corps, Beauchesne aims to follow her longtime passion for global community building and environmental stewardship by finding a career within the field. She is also considering returning to school for graduate education.

Looking back at her time at Salve Regina, Beauchesne says that there have been many faculty members that have impacted her greatly. Above all, she credits Dr. Jameson Chace, chair of the Department of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, for adding the most value to her education and inspiring her to pursue environmental studies.

“As a first-year student, I had no idea what I wanted to study,” she said. “I took one of Dr. Chace’s biology classes my first semester, where he invited us to go bird banding with him on Thursday mornings. Those early mornings were where I fell in love with studying the natural world around me.”

During her academic career, Beauchesne also had the opportunity to intern at two local nonprofit organizations: Clean Ocean Access and The Aquidneck Land Trust. While with these organizations, she was able to work for a healthy ocean and nature preservation.

“I was able to apply my knowledge from the classroom to work towards solving local environmental issues,” she said.

Beauchesne studied abroad in Tanzania in Africa, and she also conducted research on tourism development and public ocean access in Zanzibar while abroad.

Beauchesne also had a memorable career with the Salve Regina field hockey team, playing on the team for all four of her years with the school as a defender. As a committed member of the team, she would often give advice to first-year students on the team about what she has learned from her own experiences.

Beauchesne found her time at Salve Regina to be unforgettable.

“The best thing about Salve is that there are so many opportunities,” she said. “All you have to do is show interest, and you will get to do so many memorable things!”

For more Class of 2023 stories, go here.

This story was written by student writer Caitlyn Bailey ’25

Salve Spotlights is a series of people-centered stories periodically featured on SALVEtoday. Check out the tag Salve Spotlights for more stories.