This past Wednesday, November 19th, the Green Liaisons had the pleasure of hosting Takeya Meggett, a recruiter for the Student Conservation Association (SCA), for our final GL Luncheon of the Fall Semester.

The SCA is a national non-profit that offers people (students or not) over 15 years old the opportunity to unite with the environmental agency of their dreams for an internship or job anywhere in the country. That could mean literally anything from National Parks (Yosemite, anyone?) to wildlife sanctuaries to historic sites to laboratories– and all in the name of environmental conservation.

Takeya herself not only recruits for the SCA, but was also an active member of the organization for a number of years. After college, she took advantage of the many employment positions available and has by now served as a crew leader in Nevada, an intern at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, a coordinator with the National Park Service Academy in Alaska, and a ton more. She is simply brimming with experience, and her passion for it was evident during her talk.

Takeya gave us a detailed tour of the SCA website, including how to search for positions, how to interpret those visible positions, and how to apply for them. The options are broken down by age range and you can find those descriptions here. (Most students end up looking at the Individual Internships in the Young Adult (18+) category).

The site is relatively easy to navigate: you simply narrow the search options here, depending on your particular location and timing preferences. Press Search, and then voilà! An old-growth forest of beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime experiences intended to give you the skills to become the next environmental activist, EPA scientist, or parks & rec director (hello, Leslie Knope) awaits your discovery.

Once you fill out the general application, you can apply it to any 20 of these aforementioned opportunities, at which point the SCA will work to match you with the option that best fits your experience level, relevant academic coursework, and other factors. Takeya’s tips: 1) Note when an opportunity says “Hot”– this means employers want to fill spots quickly, so you have a better chance of getting one of these, and 2) Note when an opportunity says “Local Applicants Only”– this means there will be no stipend provided because interns are expected to commute from their houses (AKA, if you don’t live nearby, probably don’t apply).

So, go, follow your dreams! Apply for the Grand Canyon or Alaska or maybe somewhere right in your backyard! The SCA awaits!

You can also watch Takeya’s talk here.

Why does UD need an Office of Sustainability and how do we get one?

Last Wednesday, October 29th, we learned just that when we held our first Green Liaisons Luncheon of the semester. Our guest speakers were Becky Bronstein, a senior and member of the Blue Hen Leadership Program, Student Government Association, and the Sustainability Task Force, and Cesar Caro, a grad student and member of the Grad Student Government. Both Becky and Cesar have been involved with numerous other environmental activities on campus, but one of their biggest passion projects together, as we learned at the Luncheon, is that of the creation of an Office of Sustainability on campus.

A Bit of History

In the summer of 2013, shocked by the fact that UD did not yet have an Office of Sustainability, a small team of students that included Becky and Cesar set out to change that. A student named Grace Relf drafted a 27-page proposal for the Office, which led to a series of meetings held between this group of concerned students and UD’s Provost and Executive VP.

Taking into account the University’s feedback, Becky, Cesar, and Grace began conducting a comprehensive assessment of student and faculty support for the Office: they met with Facilities, Housing, DENIN, and professors, and then held a student poll, which showed 91% of those asked in support.

Knowing then that their efforts were worthwhile in the eyes of the UD community, this student team pressed on and proceeded to develop a plan for both funding and structure for the Office.

The Basics

Funding would be done by phased implementation, which would mean having one employee (the Director of Office) for a period of time. This employee, however, would immediately have one Graduate Fellow and a few undergrad interns. Eventually, the people employed would expand to include a variety of more specialized project managers under the Director. The money would come from a combo of grants and business partnerships.

The structure of the Office would be the following: within the Office itself would be one Director who oversees the Sustainability Task Force, student-led Green Senate, and various Project Managers. Outside of the Office–but still related–would be a Sustainability Planning Committee, comprised of various important players throughout the University, such as the VP for Facilities, VP of Student Life, and Energy Manager, who would all work to advise and monitor those within the actual Office.

On the Agenda

Becky and Cesar now are looking to write a two-pager in continuation of their work on planning the Office, and then meet again with the Provost and Executive VP. Otherwise, however, they welcome any help or ideas from students and faculty who are interested. This initiative is so significant because an Office could be the kind of body that could prevent another deal like the Power Plant from even being discussed.

Questions or want to get involved? Talk to Becky at rbronst@udel.edu or Cesar at ccaro@udel.edu!

And watch them present at the Lunch here.