Seven years later, Reeves returned to St. Andrew’s as the speaker at the Class of 2025’s senior banquet. It may not surprise you to learn that in those seven years, she has been quite busy.

After earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Science and Policy with a minor in Visual Media Studies, she went straight into graduate work, earning a Master’s Degree in Environmental Management with a focus in Environmental Economics and Policy. She then went to work at The Rachel Carson Council, where she had previously worked in the summer as a Presidential Fellow, and less than a year after beginning her career, is already the Director of Policy and Strategic Development.

None of this is surprising to those who knew her as an Upper School student from 2014-2018. She and her twin brother, Gordon, would commute daily from Frederick to Potomac and part of the reason for her dedication to making the trip can be understood by pulling back and seeing Reeve’s full quote from that video.

“I am currently taking five APs which is said to be rigorous, but I have said before that I just really enjoy the challenge, genuinely. I do have some late nights every once in a while but it’s honestly worth it when I have the feeling of community that I have at St. Andrew’s.”

When Reeves steps into the Student Center on June 3 – a building that didn’t exist when she first enrolled and was open for two years when she graduated – she will share advice with the Class of 2025, drawing on her time as an award-winning artist at St. Andrew’s, a published author during her time at Duke, and now a policy advocate, looking to move the needle on environmental protections. 

Her love of nature and belief in protecting the environment was on display her senior year when she won first place in the National Science Foundation’s Generation Nano competition, which asked High School and Middle School students to create a superhero who uses the power of science and technology to solve crimes or tackle societal challenges. She says her inspiration for caring about the environment came from her parents – her father worked at the EPA in his 20s and then did environmental consulting for worker safety and health in his 30s and 40s.

“I was the rural Federick kid out there in Maryland and I grew up on a wild and natural tract of land that shaped who I am. Right at the base of Sugarloaf Mountain, I didn’t really have any neighbors and spent almost all my time outside. But then through St. Andrew’s and Duke, I realized that the environment is both that natural biodiversity but also, it’s people. It’s survival and thriving for human beings and communities. So those two realizations have always pushed me in that direction.”

For Reeves, that community wasn’t just her friends, but also the teachers who had an impact on her, all of whom are still at St. Andrew’s. She credits Phyllis Robinson for providing scientific foundations, Lauren Cook for launching her art career and “convincing me that cartooning was a valid portfolio item,” Troy Dahlke for helping form “the way I think about the world – and that’s kind of a priceless lesson,” and Andrew Seidman who told students that “rhetoric is the superpower of this generation, and he was completely right about that.”

For his part Seidman remembers Reeves in the same way many of her former teachers remember her

“Without question, Joy was one of the most brilliant students I have ever had the pleasure of teaching at St. Andrew's” Seidman said. “Every day and to every task, she brought a sense of contagious curiosity and passionate diligence that made her stand out and excel. Joy loves learning for the sake of learning but also has an innate sense that education is something that happens beyond the walls of a classroom, and something that impacts the real world in real ways.”

When it comes to impacting the real world in a real way, Reeves is already well on her way.