Vivian Leilani Shay is an interdisciplinary artist and environmentalist from Santa Barbara, CA. She currently attends Stanford University, where she is pursuing a Master of Science in Earth Systems studying the applications of geographic information systems (GIS) for terrestrial hydrology. She received her Bachelor of Science from Stanford in Earth Systems on the Environmental Geoscience track as well as a Minor in Dance in 2024.

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Vivian graduated with Interdisciplinary Honors in the Arts for her capstone project entitled Questions for a Tree, a site-specific dance theatre performance on Stanford’s O'Donohue Family Farm. Questions for a Tree was a celebration of curiosity about the natural world, integrating Vivian’s original poetry, dance, and music with audience-submitted questions to explore how the performing arts can serve as a rigorous mode of environmental inquiry.

 

Questions for a Tree was the culmination of 4 years of study around terrestrial hydrology, more than a decade of performing arts training, and a year of scholar-artistry through Stanford Arts Institute’s interdisciplinary program Honors in the Arts. It was a true “capstone” for her experience at Stanford.

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Vivian spent two summers interning with the Water and Ecosystems Group at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In her first internship with scientist Dana Chadwick in 2023, she used data from EMIT— the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation— to study how mineralogy in the Gobi Desert might impact carbon sequestration in Hawaii. In summer of 2024, Vivian returned to JPL for an internship with scientist Cedric David and postdoc Arnaud Cerbelaud, in which she worked with SWOT data to create 3-D animations that highlight variation in the water surface elevation and width of rivers.

 

 

Through her role as Peer Advisor for Dance in Stanford’s Theater and Performance Studies department (TAPS), Vivian ideated and helped produce the department’s first Young Choreographers Festival (YCF) in spring of 2024. Now in its second year, YCF uplifts emerging choreographers by giving them the opportunity to create new work with the support and mentorship of Stanford TAPS Faculty.

 

One of Vivian’s favorite experiences at Stanford was the quarter she spent studying in Hawai'i and conducting field research on Hawaiian ecology, Earth science, and anthropology with Stanford's Wrigley Field Program. In addition, she was a member of Stanford Taiko, Stanford's student-run Japanese drumming ensemble.