On Campus; the tale begins in autumn 2007...
Bottled Water Campaign
I began my time at Cornell wanting to make some sort of difference; I found my place at Cornell's Sustainability Hub. At the first meeting, the president asked if anyone had any ideas for projects that could make Cornell's campus more sustainable. I remembered move-in day, where I saw many kids lugging cases full of bottled water. I'd never seen this kind of consumption of bottled water before - I've always used a reusable container. It struck me that some people go through multiple bottles a day, and how illogical that seemed to me from an environmental and economical standpoint.
I got a group of interested people, and we designed these signs to post around campus:
I got a group of interested people, and we designed these signs to post around campus:
At the Ithaca and Cornell Earth Day celebrations doing Tap Water Challenge's
The formation of a group and our sign posting got the Cornell Daily Sun
interested in writing an article, titles "Students Raise Awareness of
Bottled Water's Harm" (http://cornellsun.com/node/25098).
After that article was published, the national organization Take Back
the Tap contacted me to offer support in my campaign. I actually got to
meet their campaign leader at PowerShift (a semi-annual clean energy and environmental policy summit for in D.C.) in 2007, which was an
incredible experience for myself and the team. I took a class called Environmental Stewardship in the Cornell Community, which allowed me to pursue this project for class credit. I held Tap Water Challenges across campus and in the Ithacan community, in which members of the public tasted and rated 4 different samples of unidentified waters. I created a 9 point hedonic scale for testers to compete, which allowed me to collect statistical data from these Tap Water Challenges. See below for my final term paper on the project.
The bottled water initiative partnered with another group, Society for Natural Resource Conservation, and has since branched off into its own registered student organization (Take Back The Tap) which is much more organized and goal-oriented than I ever was. However, I always look back on this experience as what got me excited about making social change, and how rewarding it could be.
The bottled water initiative partnered with another group, Society for Natural Resource Conservation, and has since branched off into its own registered student organization (Take Back The Tap) which is much more organized and goal-oriented than I ever was. However, I always look back on this experience as what got me excited about making social change, and how rewarding it could be.
final_term_paper_bottled_water.doc | |
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The Dump and Run Sale
During the mayhem of the sale (photo courtesy of Lindsey Myron)
For the summer of 2007, I stayed in Ithaca and along with some other odd jobs, I was the student coordinator of Cornell's Dump and Run Sale. The Dump & Run Sale is a large recycling program which collects unwanted
items from students at the end of the school year, sorts it over the summer
with volunteers from local charities, and has a sale of the items at the start
of the new school year, with the proceeds benefiting the charities that contributed help.
I did this the next summer (2008) as well, and over that time period more than 50 tons of items were sorted and resold, and over $80,000 was raised. This was an extremely rewarding project, and the money went towards Cops, Kids & Toys; Tompkins Learning Partners; Affordable Housing for Tompkins County; The Drop-In Children’s Center; and Loaves & Fishes.
My duties involved coordinating the volunteer schedule for sorting items in the rented warehouse, overseeing sorting of the items, marketing and advertising for the sale, getting sponsors, reaching out to the Cornell community to recruit volunteers for the sale, working closely with Campus Life to reserve spaces and in general organize the sale, and planning a reception afterwards.
I did this the next summer (2008) as well, and over that time period more than 50 tons of items were sorted and resold, and over $80,000 was raised. This was an extremely rewarding project, and the money went towards Cops, Kids & Toys; Tompkins Learning Partners; Affordable Housing for Tompkins County; The Drop-In Children’s Center; and Loaves & Fishes.
My duties involved coordinating the volunteer schedule for sorting items in the rented warehouse, overseeing sorting of the items, marketing and advertising for the sale, getting sponsors, reaching out to the Cornell community to recruit volunteers for the sale, working closely with Campus Life to reserve spaces and in general organize the sale, and planning a reception afterwards.
Cornell's Office of Energy and Sustainability
At the office with the Climate Action Plan display
During the summer of my sophomore year, I started working with Cornell's Sustainability Coordinator, Dan Roth. Over the summer, I worked on various outreach projects, with a focus on the upcoming Freshman Orientation. I worked with Campus Life to create this brochure, (http://www.sustainablecampus.cornell.edu/getinvolved/Docs/StudentSustainabilityBrochure09-web.pdf) which was distributed to 1,000 freshman during orientation and detailed how they could get involved with sustainability at Cornell. I
also created a sustainability poster series for distribution to all Residential
Advisors on campus, a Climate Action Plan display for office, and Cornell's
Sustainability Facebook Page and Twitter Account. I presented at various campus
events, such as “Learning Days” at Cornell Orientation, and a “Sustainable
Ithaca Service (ILRCB 4990)” class session.
After the climate conference in Copenhagen failed to reach international agreement in 2009, The Cornell Daily Sun interviewed me about climate issues and Cornell's Climate Action Plan: http://cornellsun.com/node/40652. Cornell is increasingly on the rise in regards to its sustainability efforts; this past fall (2010) we received an A- on our "Sustainability Report Card" which is issued by the Sustainable Endowment Institute to hundreds of colleges across the country. Here is an interview I did for the Cornell Daily Sun regarding our improved sustainability grade: http://cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2010/10/29/cornell-scores-annual-green-report-card.
After the climate conference in Copenhagen failed to reach international agreement in 2009, The Cornell Daily Sun interviewed me about climate issues and Cornell's Climate Action Plan: http://cornellsun.com/node/40652. Cornell is increasingly on the rise in regards to its sustainability efforts; this past fall (2010) we received an A- on our "Sustainability Report Card" which is issued by the Sustainable Endowment Institute to hundreds of colleges across the country. Here is an interview I did for the Cornell Daily Sun regarding our improved sustainability grade: http://cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2010/10/29/cornell-scores-annual-green-report-card.
Myself speaking at the Summit
My major project was to plan a
Sustainability Summit for student leaders: a four hour event involving
presentations from environmental groups, speech by Dominic Frongillo (local
politician and chair of Energy Independent Caroline), and workshops with 30
student leaders and 10 faculty members. Student leaders came up with sustainability
plans for their organization and contributed it to the display by writing it on
a puzzle piece (the 7ft tall wooden puzzle in the shape of a pawprint,
symbolizing Cornell’s mascot). I coordinated the entire event, including
budget, donations, food, arranging presentations and speakers, creation of
giant puzzle, and a follow-up event.
Here's a link to a Cornell Daily Sun article about the follow-up event with Jeff Bercuvitz, President of the Center for Leadership, Innovation and Community: http://cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2009/11/11/student-leaders-brainstorm-sustainability-initiatives
Here's a link to a Cornell Daily Sun article about the follow-up event with Jeff Bercuvitz, President of the Center for Leadership, Innovation and Community: http://cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2009/11/11/student-leaders-brainstorm-sustainability-initiatives