“My ultimate goal is to establish the first sustainable waste management company in my country of Trinidad and Tobago.”
For Notre Dame senior Bernice Antoine, that goal didn’t originate in a classroom — it began at dawn in a rural Indian village, collecting waste by hand.
As a first-year student, Antoine spent two months working in a fully sustainable ecovillage through NDBridge. Under the guidance of monks, she helped develop composting systems and worked with a biogas chamber using anaerobic digestion. Each morning, she gathered waste from villagers, testing decomposition rates and monitoring odor in compost bins.
“We weren’t just learning about sustainability — we were living it,” she said.
The experience extended beyond waste management. Antoine worked in a gaushala caring for cows, helped repurpose old saris into reusable bags, planted seeds and crafted diyas (oil lamps) from natural materials.
She also visited a farmer suicide prevention program, where she learned how climate change and poor crop yields were devastating agricultural communities.
“That was when it became real for me,” Antoine said. “Sustainability isn’t abstract — it’s directly tied to people’s lives.”
Now a senior business analytics major with a triple minor in sustainability, social entrepreneurship and innovation and the Business Honors Program, Antoine has built an academic path to match that mission. She has also taken her global learning further, studying Chinese medicine in Hong Kong and Hindi in India to better connect with her community at home.
Antoine was named a 30 under 30 Caribbean Changemaker by and served as a Caribbean Climate Ambassador for the Caribbean Youth Climate Council.
On campus, she has emerged as a leader in sustainability and service. She founded, a sustainability initiative, and serves in multiple leadership roles, including as a McNeill Justice Fellow, Kellogg International Scholar, class representative on the Mendoza Academic Council, club officer of GreeND and chair of the Student Advisory Committee for the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative, hosting the inaugural Sustainability Action Fair assembling environmental organizations from South Bend and campus, with a focus on teaching individual skills like “intro to microgarden,” “plant propagation” and “how to build a wind turbine.”
Her work has earned recognition including the John W. Gardner Student Leadership Award, Martin Luther King Jr. Black Excellence Award, Outstanding Social Entrepreneur, Lou Holtz Leadership Award, Grow the Good in Business Undergraduate Women in Business, Frazier Thompson Community Empowerment Award and Global Game Changer.
Even in her residence hall, Antoine puts her values into practice. She maintains a small vegetable garden, growing broccoli and basil. She saves food scraps to feed worms in a horticulture class as part of her hands-on approach to sustainability.
After graduation, Antoine will join Boston Consulting Group while launching her nonprofit, Caribbean Development Group, which aims to teach youth practical sustainability skills like composting and micro-gardening.
But her long-term vision remains rooted in home.
“I want to build something that changes how we think about waste in Trinidad and Tobago,” she said. “Not just managing it — but transforming it into opportunity.”