Nikki has just been granted an internship with EcoFaith Recovery funded by the Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (WELCA) and Lutheran Community Foundation (LCF). Her passion for female empowerment, self-expression and non-profit work has helped shape her project, tentatively titled “Beauty, Billboards and Brainwashing: The Devastation and Renewal of the Female Body in Society, Spirituality and Nature.” It will focus on “how a recovery from consumerist addiction would lead to the rehabilitation of the female body and the Earth. She will explore how the negative effects of advertising and other media related images of an “ideal” female body relate to how society mistreats Mother Earth. The culmination of her internship will be a weekend long workshop for teenage girls and young women to discuss this topic and take action. The workshop will be hosted by Nikki at Camp Lutherwood, Oregon.

Nikki grew up in Oregon and is a member of Prince of Life Lutheran Church in Oregon City. She studied at the University of San Francisco where she received a BA in English with a creative writing emphasis and a minor in Latin American Studies. During her years as a student, her love of language and culture compelled her to study in Bilbao, Spain and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 2011, her interest in adventure, social change and non-profits led her to spend an invaluable year with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps in Omaha, Nebraska where she worked as a volunteer supervisor for Together, a homeless prevention agency. Although she discovered a lot more to the Midwest than cornfields, she realized that she feels most at home in the woods or the coffee shops of the West Coast. She followed her heart and moved back to Oregon to work as an intern at Camp Lutherwood where she currently manages rental groups, day camp and service. Some of her many enjoyments include biking, cooking, word play, whimsy, live music and general outdoor shenanigans with her three beloved housemates.

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