Tristy Osbon grew up in Redmond, recreating in the lakes and rivers and hiking the mountains that surround the town. It took going away to college — and earning dual degrees in theology and environmental science — for her to realize her love for the natural world and ignite her desire to save it.

That desire has now taken her around the world.

As a member of the Christian Climate Observers Program, Osbon participated the COP27 world climate conference last month in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The event’s guest list included U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, World Bank President David Malpass and many others. Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelenskiy addressed the congress virtually.

Osbon, 22, wasn’t rubbing elbows with the world’s foremost movers-and-shakers. She was, however, a certified “observer,” free to sit on negotiations, watch protests and chat with representatives of NGOs, corporations and governments.

“We talked about a lot of things,” said Osbon. “Coming from the Northwest a lot of (talk about climate change) is theoretical. But it’s not in other places. I heard a lot of those stories.”

Osbon graduated from Ridgeview High School in 2018 and in 2022 graduated from Whitworth University, a private Christian school in Spokane, Wash. While at Whitworth, Osbon started an environmental club and joined the national organization Young Evangelics for Climate Action. It was her shared passion for the environment and religion that drew her to make the environment a focus on her studies, and she hopes, her life’s work.

“(Climate change) is the clear call and need of our time, something that is going to affect everyone,” said Osbon. “I know there is an inherent need to be involved in this in some capacity.”

Osbon didn’t always feel that way. She didn’t grow up in a religious family or belong to a church, but at a freshman at Ridgeview she got involved in Young Life, a Christian ministry geared toward teens. Osbon said it was a “super positive, impactful space” for her.

“I think that’s where the faith side of me sparked,” she said.

A few years later, her environmental beliefs sparked in a similar way.

In her senior year at Ridgeview, she took an environmental science class taught by Tim DeRoss. In class, they went through numerous modern problems and how they affect people — from climate change to energy. It was a way to try to make complicated scientific problems real and important.

“That was a very formative class for me,” said Osbon.

In fact, it caused her to change her prospective college major from psychology to environmental science.

DeRoss said he remembers that specific class, too. He said it has always been one that makes students think and helps them come up with their own conclusions for some of the world’s biggest problems. He has kept in touch with Osbon over the years, too.

“It was pretty exciting to hear she’d gone on to study this at college, then gone on to Egypt,” he said.

At Whitworth, Osbon double majored in environmental studies and theology — which allowed her unique perspectives in each classroom.

“I guess that people think that science and religion are inherently in conflict,” she said. “But for me they are held in the same space, held in concert together.”

Her theology classes taught her how “deeply rooted and bound up people are with the Earth.”

“Part of the creation story, the root and core of it, is in care for creation and the tending of the garden,” said Osbon. “It’s a direct call for Christian people and why it’s something I can’t uncombine.”

With a foot in both worlds, Osbon graduated in May. She took a job with AmeriCorps and is currently working on Gonzaga’s campus in Spokane to help the university reduce its environmental footprint.

She working locally but thinking globally — a mindset COP helped her discover. The weeks she was in Egypt she heard a lot of different perspectives and saw some positive steps, but also the glacial pace of international bureaucracy.

“It is a painstaking slow process, but that doesn’t excuse inaction,” she said of international negotiations on climate emergency. “We’re on a bad trajectory and course over the next 20-30 years. But I want to bear witness. I want to be involved in creation care.”