Senior Sean Anderson says he has long had an interest in environmentalism but didn’t know much about China’s environmental issues until he studied there last fall. “With the Olympics going on, pollution and the environment were hot topics,” he says.

Those hot topics eventually became the topic of his own research project for which Anderson presented his findings at LMU’s First Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium this spring.

Anderson’s research focused on the role of non-governmental organizations in making China more ‘green.’ He argues that China must allow those organizations more freedom to act as "watchdogs" on both the public and private sectors to ensure that laws are being enforced.
 
“My argument depends on allowing civil society to develop further in China, which is still pretty controversial for the Chinese Communist Party as it means they must give up some control,” says Anderson, who will soon earn his degree in international business with a minor in Asian and Pacific studies.

His research yielded statistics that may be surprising to many: among them, up to 25% of the pollution over California on any given day comes from China.

Anderson says much of his findings came from researching databases, but thanks to connections made during his study abroad, he was able to look to his former professors in China for more current information as well as a local perspective. LMU Theological Studies Professor James Fredericks served as faculty mentor to Anderson, helping him find the focus of his research.

“Dr. Fredericks really helped me to narrow my thesis into a topic I could work with,” says Anderson. “He also taught me the power of outlining in great detail before writing, which helped me keep my thesis structured and organized.”

Upon graduating on May 9, Anderson will shift his focus from Asia to Latin America, as he plans on studying Spanish and doing service work in Cuzco, Peru over the summer. In the fall, he expects to be attending graduate school to pursue a degree in global affairs and management with the goal of working for a global nonprofit like World Wildlife Fund.