Zinta Lucans

 Zinta comes from Chicago and still calls herself a Chicagoan, though she has now lived on the West Coast since 2017. She is a graduate of the Urban Planning and Sustainable Development program at WWU, graduating in 2021 after spending almost a decade prior working as an early childhood educator. Previous stints include working at a Montessori Latvian-language preschool in Chicago and an all-outdoor year-round preschool in Seattle. She is proud of her Latvian heritage and loves to bake traditional foods with recipes passed down through the generations in her family. Zinta grew up in a really tight-knit Latvian community in Chicago, and as a result is really passionate about helping others find community and belonging. This translates to her work with SEJF; her favorite projects are ones that involve building and strengthening community both at Western and with the wider public.

In her free time, Zinta likes making ceramic jewelry and pots, gardening (mostly unsuccessfully), and reading fiction.