Isabella Met

What made you want to come to Lewis & Clark?

I toured Lewis & Clark as a sophomore in high school and immediately felt at home. It was an intuitive sense of “I belong here.” My mom even noticed how I went from being shy at the back of the tour group to fully engaged, edging toward the front and soaking in every bit of information. Plus, the students we encountered seemed genuinely happy to be there. On other campuses, it felt like a polished PR pitch, but here, it was authentic. From that first tour through to applying, I was motivated to do everything I could to attend my dream school—now, I’m proud to be an alumna.

What have you been doing since graduation?

Since graduation, I cofounded a psilocybin company with my family called Satya Therapeutics, operating under Oregon’s legal framework established by Measure 109. We’re currently the only vertically integrated psilocybin company in the state—holding all three licenses: service center, manufacturing, and facilitation (my father is a licensed facilitator). I manage day-to-day operations and ensure compliance at our service center in Ashland. In the two years since opening, we’ve supported over 1,500 clients, earned more positive Google reviews than any other center in Oregon, and proven ourselves as innovators in a groundbreaking new field.

How did Lewis & Clark prepare you for your job?

While the past two years may seem unrelated to writing papers or studying global dynamics, the interdisciplinary approach of a liberal arts education has been essential to my success. I majored in international affairs but also took courses in the natural sciences, rhetoric and media studies, and minored in English—each of which expanded my intellectual toolkit. Exposure to diverse disciplines encouraged me to consider new perspectives and reflect on my own values. At Satya Therapeutics, where we aim to make psilocybin services accessible across lines of race, gender, class, religion, and political belief, that ability to check my own biases and remain open-minded is essential to how we care for clients.

What would you say is the most important thing you learned at Lewis & Clark?

I’ve always been a curious learner, but Lewis & Clark helped me extend that curiosity beyond the academic realm. I learned to critically engage with people and the world, and to reflect on how I—and all of us—fit into it. Every aspect of my life has benefited from that curiosity and my growing appreciation for complexity and nuance. Follow your curiosities and be willing to be challenged are two of the most important things I took from my time at the college.

How do you stay connected to Lewis & Clark as an alum?

I’ve stayed closely connected with my mentors and professors since graduating—especially when navigating graduate school applications or other big decisions. After I earn my master’s and establish a career (likely in human rights, international political economy, or both), I’d be thrilled to mentor students exploring interdisciplinary paths or ethical entrepreneurship.

What did you like or find most interesting about your major?

What drew me to international affairs at Lewis & Clark was that it stood alone as its own department—unlike many schools that fold it into political science—and that it was truly interdisciplinary. When asked what it means to study international relations, the face-value answer is studying how the global system operates. But how the global system operates encompasses law, history, economics, governance, media, culture, and much more. Because there are so many facets, the major felt expansionary rather than restrictive.

What did you like or find most interesting about your minor?

I initially intended to major in English because I love to read and analyze literature. I’ve also always loved writing and in some capacity want to be a writer. One of the best things about the English Department is that most classes are discussion-based, which leads to lively and rich classes led by students. Thus in the process of learning about writers, their time and place and how they constructed language, we learned about ourselves and each other as thinkers and people, which is just as, if not more, rewarding.

What was your favorite class? How did it expand your knowledge?

Although difficult to choose just one, my favorite course was Religion and Climate Change taught by Professor Rob Kugler. It was a unique one-time offering that combined my interest in climate science with comparative religion. Science and religion are often seen as oppositional, but this class explored how the two have long been entangled—and how misunderstanding, power, and politics have contributed to the climate crisis. Yet it also highlighted the potential for collaboration across disciplines and belief systems.

Professor Kugler often has students write papers on topics of personal interest related to the subject matter. I explored how J.R.R. Tolkien’s Catholicism influenced the environmentalist themes in The Lord of the Rings, combining course themes with my love for literature. Researching and writing it was a joy—it offered a new lens on a story I’ve loved for years, deepened my appreciation of Tolkien’s worldview, and allowed me to see how, despite previous dominant interpretations, faith can inspire a desire to combat climate change.

And another favorite class would be Oscar Wilde, an English topic course from Professor Andrea Hibbard.

Where did you find your community on campus?

I found community within my major, especially through my role as the SAAB Representative for international affairs. I helped students through the grant-writing process and saw first-hand how vital funded opportunities are to academic and personal growth. I also built community by organizing events—both social and academic—so students and faculty could connect. I even spoke to classes about grants and got to know students across all year levels. That’s powerful, especially in a major as large as international affairs, where community can be hard to build.

If you studied overseas while at Lewis & Clark, how did you choose your program? What did your overseas study add to your L&C experience?

Lewis & Clark’s overseas programs were a big reason I chose the college—I’m a TCK who lived in Spain and a lifelong traveler, so studying abroad was important to me. I was lucky to be selected for the Greece program in my junior year—one of the first cohorts post-pandemic. Being in Greece and walking through ancient ruins while taking classes was transformative.

We spent most of our time in Athens, but also visited Lesvos, which was at the center of the 2015 refugee crisis. There, at a distance, we saw the remains of Moria camp and visited an organization helping refugees integrate into Greek society. That experience deeply inspired the kind of work I want to pursue with my degree.

International Affairs English