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Media Contacts

Michael Hamburger
STF co-chair
hamburg@indiana.edu

Paul Sullivan
STF co-chair
psulliva@indiana.edu

Nicole Schonemann
Internship co-coordinator
nschonem@indiana.edu

Benjamin Schultz
Internship co-coordinator
schultzb@indiana.edu

Last modified: Thursday, June 14, 2007

IU announces new sustainability interns

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 14, 2007

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- As part of a rapidly expanding effort to address issues of environmental and social sustainability on its Bloomington campus, 13 undergraduate and graduate students at Indiana University have been named recipients of internships in a new sustainability internship program.

Coordinated by the IU Task Force for Sustainabiltiy, the interns will work with IU faculty and staff to gather data about the current status of sustainability on the Bloomington campus and to survey the sustainability activities of peer institutions. All of the information gathered will be compiled during the summer and used to develop a framework for campus sustainability that the task force will present this fall.

Photo by: www.homepages.indiana.edu

Interns have been named in a new program designed to address environment and social sustainability and to keep the beautiful IU Bloomington campus green.

Print-Quality Photo

The IU Task Force for Sustainabiltiy, which was established in March 2007 by Terry Clapacs, vice president for administration, is co-chaired by Paul Sullivan, deputy vice president for administration, and Michael Hamburger, professor of geological sciences. The sustainability internship program is jointly sponsored by the offices of Michael McRobbie, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs and IU's president-elect, and Clapacs.

Funding for the summer internship program was secured at the end of the spring semester and a call for applicants was issued to the student body in late April.

"We were absolutely overwhelmed and encouraged by the enthusiastic response to our internship announcement," said Hamburger. "We received over 200 applications from an extraordinarily well-qualified and engaged group of students. It bodes well for the future of IU -- and our society."

Benjamin Schultz, lecturer in IU's Kelley School of Business, and Nicole Schonemann, director of the Community Outreach and Partnerships in Service Learning, are the coordinators of the summer internship program.

"The internships provide students with an opportunity to focus on areas of interest and to apply skills acquired in the classroom to an important societal problem," said Schultz.

In addition to their individual projects, the interns will come together for seminars, discussions and tours of IU's critical environmental operations, including the university central heating plant and chilled water plant.

"When the interns might otherwise be working quite independently, bringing them together throughout the summer encourages them to share and build on each other's research," said Schonemann. "This also provides them with the opportunity to develop a sense of both collegiality and community interested and engaged in these issues."

The summer interns and their areas of responsibility are:

  • Nancy Arazan, MPA/MSES candidate, SPEA -- Jordan River ecosystem study, including prospects for erosion control measures, cultivation of native plants on river banks, wetlands, and reconfiguring built-up and landscaped areas adjacent to the river.
  • Joice Chang, Ph.D. candidate, SPEA -- review existing K-12 and community outreach programs at IUB and peer institutions.
  • Melissa Enoch, MPA/MSES candidate, SPEA -- research peer institutions' building standards for high-performance buildings such as building envelope and HVAC systems.
  • David Fuente, MS graduate, SPEA -- energy metering survey, focusing on improvement of IU's collection of data on building energy use.
  • Chris Kumfer, undergrad, chemistry -- research "green chemistry" in order to reduce volumes of input and output laboratory chemicals while using more renewable resources and less environmentally damaging products.
  • Laura Kunz, undergrad, political science -- energy density survey and comparison of energy building standards among U.S. and European institutions.
  • Adity Mutsuddi, PhD candidate, School of Informatics -- design and construction of IUB's new sustainability website (https://www.indiana.edu/~sustain).
  • Justin Naab, MPA candidate, SPEA -- research on the commuting trends of the university community, in order to identify the population that could be most easily accommodated by alternative transportation.
  • Tatyana Ruseva, PhD candidate, SPEA -- review existing coursework, academic programs, research, scholarly and co-curricular activities at IUB and peer institutions that relate to sustainability and environmental literacy.
  • Brandon Schmitt, MPA/MSES graduate, SPEA -- Geographic Information System (GIS) survey of the IU campus for sustainability planning and development of a campus tree canopy inventory.
  • Andrew Shelby, MPA/MSES candidate, SPEA -- map food consumption, calculate food carbon footprint and determine local food purchasing alternatives.
  • Jennifer Van Skiver, MPA candidate, SPEA -- survey of campus resource use and recycling.
  • Faye Wanchic, JD candidate, law school -- compilation of information on academic and operational sustainability efforts at peer institutions.