By Abdullah Memon, Fellow
Updated March 18, 2024
Meet Conor Stayton, a transfer student and a second-semester member of GRC. He’ll be working
as a Project Manager this semester!
Conor comes from the Evergreen State, having lived in the suburbs of Seattle. Everything from
the lush forests, majestic mountains, serene lakes, and breathtaking Puget Sound create a
captivating natural landscape– one that ignited Conor’s passion for environmentalism. He was
especially passionate about fighting the effects climate change was having on the natural wildlife
and insects in his area. Conor may not have a sick Bass Pro Shop hat collection (at least of public
knowledge), but he does enjoy fishing. When he noticed the decreasing number of fish in the
lakes by his home at the beginning of his freshman year, he realized he needed to act. In fact,
right before the COVID-19 quarantine started, Conor decided to host a conference in his
community to raise awareness, and over 70 community members joined him.
Once quarantine shut everything down, Conor decided his fight for environmental justice would
have to continue– even if it required taking on new avenues. During the pandemic, Conor
decided to dabble in an entirely new world: TikTok. Starting off by sharing his takes on the
environment and vaccines– which Conor admits were definitely not nuanced– allowed him to
gain an immense and diverse amount of young followers. Soon, particularly during the 2020
election, Conor became a well-known name in the #2020politicaltiktok era. As of today, Conor
has had over 250 million lifetime views on his platform and more than half a million followers.
Conor didn’t just stop short on his personal TikTok; he is also one of the managing members of
GenZforChange, one of the most–if not the most– popular political and advocacy accounts on
TikTok, with close to three million followers. Conor manages much of the social media and
script-making for the account and makes sure to emphasize climate content.
Academically, however, Conor’s passion doesn’t go astray. Today, he studies Conservation
Resource Science and minors in Geospatial Information Science and Technology (GIS), which
focuses on capturing and analyzing geographic data. However, his arrival at Berkeley from
Washington was not that simple, as he initially committed to UCSB and then transferred to Cal.
Conor has a lifelong passion for sustainability and wants to continue that through a career in
environmental consulting, a passion that he also works towards at GRC. During his first
semester, Conor worked with helping SweetGreen, and now he is managing a project with
Hanson Engineering. Though Conor has only been at Cal for a semester, his best memory has
been with his GRC buddy, Luke, when both created a GIS project. The professor thought it was
so good that it was presented at a San Francisco Housing Committee meeting! Conor was
inspired and proud by the impact he was able to make to encourage affordable housing in the
Bay Area (Thank you, Conor!). Besides his passion for the environment and activism, Conor
also really enjoys rock climbing and Pokemon, hobbies he considers to be on his nerdier side.
Conor hopes to continue his passion for environmental justice, and GRC is one way he hopes to
achieve that!
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