Find out more about our past interns and what they've achieved working with sustainability units on campus.
2017-2018 Interns and Projects
UK Dining Sustainability Unit
UK Dining Sustainability Unit
Name: Colin Marshall
Class Standing: Senior
Major: Environmental and Sustainability Studies
Hometown: Paducah, KY
About his internship: I work for the sustainability office of UK Dining where we try to reduce our environmental impact though sustainable practices. Some of our continuous initiatives include buying local, composting, and waste tracking and reduction.
I am working with the UK Dining Sustainability manager, Carolyn Gahn, along with Lilian Brislen from the food connection to spread awareness of the local food on campus. By creating a webpage for students to view the various local food options on campus, we hope to increase awareness of and purchasing of local food.
Outreach and Coordination at The Food Connection
Name: Mackenzie Gibson
Class Standing: Sophomore
Major: Public Health
Hometown: London, KY
About her internship: I work with Lilian Brislen at The Food Connection. I mainly work with The First Friday Breakfast Series and any other major events that The Food Connections presents. I coordinate between volunteers, guests hosts, partners, and event attendees. I also coordinate with our Media Specialist for outreach through social media and designs for each First Friday Breakfast. My independent project is yet to be decided, but will be overlapping public health and food systems within our community and how to make local and healthy foods accessible to students on campus.
Promotions & Outreach with the Office of Sustainability
Name: Lauren Thomas
Class Standing: Senior
Majors: Communications, Environmental & Sustainability Studies
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
About her internship: I work with Shane Tedder in the Office of Sustainability to improve communications about campus sustainability initiatives. This takes the form of social media, web editing, graphic design, and email marketing.
My independent project is to develop an online Sustainability Hub to engage the student population in sustainable initiatives across campus.
Waste Reduction
Name: Cassie Odom
Class Standing: Junior
Majors: Geography & Environmental and Sustainability Studies
Energy Efficiency & Conservation
Name: Oluwafeyisayo Afolabi
Class Standing: Junior.
Major: Electrical Engineering with minors in Math and Psychology.
Hometown: Lagos, Nigeria.
About his internship: I work under Britney Ragland, an energy engineer here at UK. I help her with various projects but currently we are working on the University of Kentucky Emissions Reduction Plan which is committed to a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. We are still deciding what my Independent project will be, but it will likely be an extension of the Greenhouse gas project involving lighting.
Water Systems Working Group/Stream Restoration Intern
Name: Kayla Rosko
Class Standing:Junior
Water Systems Working Group/Stream Restoration Intern
Name: Sara Stewart
Class standing: Senior
Major: Natural Resources and Environmental Science
Hometown: Berea, Kentucky
About her internship: I am supporting the work of Dr. Carmen Agouridis, extension associate professor and faculty lead for the Water Systems Working Group, identifying opportunities for student, faculty, and staff involvement in stream restoration projects on campus. I am also aiding in the assessment and reporting of stormwater outreach, education, and public participation activities in compliance with UK's MS4 permit.
For my independent project, I plan on developing an Esri Story Map for water-related landmarks across campus.
2016-2017 Interns and Projects
Sarah Cooley - Built Environment Working Group
Class: Junior
Hometown: Louisville, KY
Major: Architecture
I am working with Doug Appler, a professor in historic preservation working to emphasize the connection between historic preservation, archeology, affordable housing, and economic development.
We will be doing research and creating tools to use for analysis of Rail Trails. The research will pertain to abandoned railways and the demographics surrounding them. The analysis will look at the relation between rail trails, their effect on the community, and how new rail trails could benefit communities.
Lauren Thomas - Promotions and Outreach
Class: Junior
Hometown: Nashville, TN
Majors: Communications & Environmental & Sustainability Studies
I work with Shane Tedder in the Office of Sustainability working to improve the Outreach capabilities for the Office. This includes crafting strategies for social media, Sustainability eNews, and different types of programing and campaign management.
My pet project is developing an engagement program for first year students to get them plugged in with Sustainability initiatives during their first months on campus.
Henrique Menezes Correa - Energy-Efficiency and Conservation
Class: Junior
Hometown: Londrina, Brazil
Major: Mechanical Engineering
As an intern for UK's energy engineer, Britney Thompson, I have been doing research on possible cost-effective energy efficiency and conservation applications for our campus besides helping her with other ongoing projects. I have been specifically looking into the field of thermal control of buildings, so that we may reduce the consumption of AC units throughout the year.
Rachel Cook - Urban Forest Initiative
Class: Sophomore
Hometown: Perryville, KY
Majors: Environmental & Sustainability Studies and Natural Resources and Environmental Science
I work with Nic Williamson, a co-founder of the Urban Forest Initiative. I help with the UFI website, posting the Adopt-a-tree stories and working to write stories about UK's tree canopy. I'm working with Nic on expanding UFI's outreach here on campus through these stories and with events like Mulch Madness.
2015-2016 Interns and Projects
Michaela Rogers - Waste Reduction
I work with Mari Long in the UK Recycling department on campus projects to encourage students to be mindful of their waste disposal decisions.
This includes creating educational pieces, encouraging proper recycling and looking to improve campus sustainability through waste diversion.
I recently attended the AASHE conference alongside my mentor, and was able to network with other students to gather more ideas to accomplish these goals.
Amanda Williams - Urban Forests
I support the work of Nic Williamson, a Forestry graduate student and co-founder of UFI. During this internship, I have done a lot with social media. I’ve created a Twitter account for the Urban Forest Initiative and have been posting Adopt-A-Tree narratives and urban forest related stories on our Facebook page. A large part of UFI involves out reach. In addition, I also planned and organized “Mulch Madness,” a service project which took place around William T. Young Library, to help UK maintain Tree Campus USA status. I’ve tabled for UFI several events in the community and have been trying to implement our Adopt-A-Tree program in more classrooms and schools.
Venecia Proctor - Alternative Transportation
My work under Shane Tedder consists of updating the bike-related inventory and maps on UK’s campus. The shared-pathways map has been updated and new locations were also added. An inventory of the style, capacity, and location of bike racks around campus has been started and is still in process. I am involved in research on different ways to make UK a more bike-friendly campus in hopes to raise bike usage around campus.
Garrett Pieratt - Storm Water Database
Doug Curl, Section Head of Geoscience Information Management, has worked with me to build a database containing all of the storm water date collected by various professors on UK’s campus. One specific area of interest is the recently builtrain garden on Farm Road. The data collected from these locations will be used for professors’ own personal research and used as educational tools for students.
Zach Tyler - Energy Efficiency and Conservation
My work with Britney Thompson, an energy engineer for UK, has been to evaluate the reduction of unnecessary energy expenditures on campus lighting through the installation of occupancy sensors. Many bathrooms and hallways remain lit even during nights and weekends, when nobody is present. I have been collecting and analyzing data to identify target areas that will result in the largest energy savings and quickest payback periods. This data, once compiled and presented, should justify and result in the installation of these energy-saving sensors.
Elise McConnell - Food Systems
I work along side anthropology professor Sarah Lyon to prepare for the UK Food Summit, occurring in the spring of 2016. The summit will host food sustainability experts from other universities as well as a multidisciplinary group of UK faculty to develop a plan of action for promoting food sustainability at the University of Kentucky. Additionally, I am compiling a list of current UK courses related to sustainable food, and I plan to help with social media to raise awareness about related activities occurring on campus. These steps will make food sustainability work more accessible to the UK community. Besides these activities, I will help Sarah Lyon with her research on fair trade coffee systems in Latin America.
