How Pranav Hooda’s Leadership Skills Sprang From Project Earth

When senior Pranav Hooda made the choice to attend Duke University, his first academic decision was easy: signing up for Project Earth experiential orientation – a weeklong orientation focused on climate and sustainability hands-on programming for first-year students. 

In his first few days as a Blue Devil, Hooda met a transformative student leader in Felicia Wang, who graduated in 2025.

“She led Project Earth from the beginning, and put a lot of elbow grease into it, and made it,” Hooda said.

Hooda followed in those footsteps, applying to be a co-leader himself to make his own mark the past two years, with fellow Project Earth co-leaders Faith Caesar and Catherine Papa. While leading new Duke students on a hike to Occoneechee Mountain and encouraging them to bond, Hooda built community — just as he had experienced in his first Duke days.

“[Orientation] is one of the most formative weeks for someone’s Duke experience. A lot of people will find out about a club that they end up joining; they meet a friend that they end up being best friends with; or they learn a little bit about themselves,” Hooda said.

An Interest Sparked Growing Up in Jersey

His own interest in climate and sustainability began in New Jersey, where Hooda grew up in a community surrounded by parks and forested areas.

A group of people standing in front of a mural that says "Project" with a painting of the Earth
Pranav Hooda (second from left, top row) with Project Earth students during Experiential Orientation. Hooda was Project Earth co-leader for the past two years. Photo courtesy of Pranav Hooda.

“When I was really young, I remember having an interest in animals and biodiversity. I really liked spending time in nature,” he said. 

When he applied for college, Hooda looked at the schools that were strong in environmental sciences, “and Duke was always up there on those lists.” 

In addition to the warmer weather and sports culture, he said “Duke has these interesting resources and opportunities like the Duke Campus Farm, Duke Gardens and the Duke Forest. A lot of schools don’t have things like that.”

Among his Duke memories: studying abroad in Berlin fall of his junior year, and spending a summer at the Duke Marine Lab as part of DukeEngage, where he worked with NOAA team to help identify and catalog photos of wildlife.

“It was a very fun summer. The Duke Marine Lab definitely was a highlight of my Duke environmental experience,” Hooda said.

He met faculty member Liz DeMattia during DukeEngage and learned about her Fostering Climate Resilience Through Education and Arts team, which he joined the next semester. 

A person in the forest carrying a bin and a trash bag
As part of Project Earth, Pranav Hooda helped with trash pickup at Falls Lake alongside fellow Duke students.

“As part of Bass Connections, I volunteered at Carrington Middle School in Durham in an ESL classroom, and that was really inspiring. I learned a lot from students in that classroom. It was a very different type of middle school than I went to, so it was a new perspective that I gained,” Hooda said.

In the ESL classroom, Hooda worked with students to study and read environmentally- themed fables and stories from the Ready, Set, Resilience curriculum co-created by DeMattia. 

Finding Power in Sandy the Snail

“One of the stories that we were working on was called Sandy the Snail, about a snail learning how to grow and live with the tides. There were a lot of environmental nature-themed words to build new vocabulary for the ESL students to be able to talk about sustainability issues. That was really fulfilling,” he said.

This summer, Hooda traded the coast for the city. He received a Stanback Fellowship to work in Washington, D.C., where he worked for the Rachel Carson Council. The fellowship culminated in a capstone project researching and writing for the public and for policymakers on a piece of legislation. 

“My direct mentor was a Duke alumna, Joy Reeves, and she really helped me improve my writing and taught me a lot about the policymaking process. My capstone was on the New York-New Jersey Watershed Protection Act to help restore the Hudson River and surrounding area, a Superfund site.” Hooda chose that project because it is close to where he grew up.

Hooda said his climate and sustainability journey at Duke has been memorable, from Project Earth to his first environmental sciences course with Professor Rebecca Vidra. 

“My freshman year, I learned in Professor Vidra’s class about CAFOs, industrialized agricultural areas, and how they are polluting low-income communities. It’s a huge environmental justice issue. I remember thinking: That’s one of the big things that I would want to help fix in my career,” Hooda said. 

What’s Next

Hooda took a class with Vidra again this summer as part of his Stanback Fellowship. “She inspires me a lot with how dedicated she is to environment and sustainability.”

Follow the Path, At-a-Glance

 
Project Earth, part of Duke Experiential Education for first-year students
 
Duke Marine Lab, a unit of the Nicholas School of the Environment
 
Bass Connections, a university-wide academic program supporting collaborative, interdisciplinary research
 
DukeEngage, an immersive summer experience 
 
Stanback Fellowship, a partnership between the Nicholas School of the Environment and non-profit environmental organizations

As a senior double majoring in environmental sciences and policy and public policy, Hooda is now preparing for his next path, law school. 

“Duke has a lot of great resources for law and policy, like the Sanford School of Public Policy and the Duke Law School, and I’ve taken a lot of interesting classes that are in that exact space where I want to work,” he said.

More Climate Pathfinders