WWOOFing in the Netherlands to sow seeds for the future

Written by

Environmental Studies majors take part in a unique 3-quarter Capstone experience combining professional development, a built-in internship (locally or abroad) and a public presentation tying in their academic research with their practical on-the-job work. Students gain valuable hands-on experience exploring potential career paths and they build communications, research and analytic skills that serve them well beyond their time at college. 

Read more about what the student experience is within our Capstone, in this first post in our Student Capstone Q&A Series.

Carly Lester

Capstone Internship Focus: Direct Farm Marketing
Capstone Organization: Worldwide Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF)
UW Faculty Member: Dr. Beth Wheat

Farm sign in Netherlands
Carly Lester
This sign at n’ Groene Kans farm reads, “Welcome to our Organic Company”, and is only hung on Saturday during the farm’s on-site market day.

Why did you choose this internship?

During Winter quarter (2018) I asked Beth Wheat if she knew of any programs that involved working on a farm in a study abroad format. I was highly interested in going abroad for my Capstone, and she suggested the program WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). I looked into the program before Spring Quarter started as I wanted to get a jump start on planning for my Capstone. I explored a few options in India, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, but decided on the Netherlands because I had heard a lot about their agriculture sector. The Netherlands is ranked second in the world, next to the United States, in exporting agricultural goods. This is pretty remarkable, considering the Netherlands is just 41,500 km^2 with around 18 million people; it shows that small countries can pack a large punch on the world market if they optimize their growing space.

What environmental challenges are you addressing? Why is this important?

The environmental challenge I chose to focus on is sourcing local food products. Sourcing locally, as opposed to transporting mass quantities of food vast distances, has been linked to benefiting the environment, economy, and human health. I believe that sourcing locally is also important because it re-establishes a relationship with consumers and their food; we as a society are accustomed to walking into a grocery store, picking out some vegetables or fruit, and leaving the store without knowing where and who that produce is coming from.

Carly Lester
Carly tending to a container of seeds she sowed during her first week at n’ Groene Kans (broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, and curly kale). She sowed over 300 seeds during her stay.

What are the goals of this internship, and what are your expected deliverables?

My goal for this internship was to gain an abundance of knowledge about organic farming, and the struggles and opportunities that farmers encounter when selling directly to consumers. The internship aligned with my research question(s), which were: How do direct farm marketing strategies vary by region, and what are the struggles and opportunities that farmers encounter when directly selling to consumers?

My deliverables included a written document to my host family (the owners of the farm that I lived and worked on while in the Netherlands) summarizing the farm’s operations and suggestions for how to improve their operations. I also was a part of the brainstorming session for re-designing the farm’s website layout and web-shop format. The web-shop attributes more than 50 percent of the farm’s income, so it was important to design a website that will continue to contribute to the web-shop’s success.

What does a day in the life of your internship look like?

I spent 4 weeks in Groenekan, Netherlands working on a farm, and am now back in the United States interviewing farmers in Colorado and Washington for the other half of my Capstone. While I was in Groenekan, a typical day began with waking up at 5:30am and working in the greenhouse until 8:00am before taking a break for breakfast. We began with work in the greenhouse because in the late mornings and early afternoons it would become too hot to work comfortably. After breakfast we usually prepared beds for planting, sowing seeds, weeding, watering, etc. until 1:00pm when our work day ended with lunch.

What skills have you learned throughout this internship?

Although I only stayed for 4 weeks, the amount of knowledge and set of skills I gained was extensive. My hosts Floor and Jan treated me as an intern, – as opposed to past WWOOFers who only stay for 2 weeks to volunteer for fun – so they took their time teaching me how the farm operates and trusting me with more tasks than normal. In fact, one weekend my host family left for a family reunion and I was entrusted with taking care of the farm, delivering produce to the organic food store, and taking care of the animals.

I learned how to use a flame burner to burn away small weeds after sowing seeds, install a sprinkler system in the greenhouse, prune different types of vegetables, and so much more! The most important thing that I learned though, is just how hard farmers work. I’ve always known that farmers are hard workers, but it never dawned on me just how hard they work until I was working alongside my hosts.

What is the most memorable moment of this internship so far?

One of my most memorable moments happened after farm working hours. My hosts had a plethora of black and red currants growing – more than what they could sell in their web-shop or their Saturday shop – so we made a huge batch of jam. We stayed up until almost midnight making jam, even though we knew we had to wake up early the next day to begin work. We laughed a lot, shared stories, and I was able to ask more questions about farming that I wasn’t able to have answered during our working hours.

What are your career aspirations once you graduate?

My long term goal is to open a farm-to-table restaurant in Washington where I locally source food from Washington farmers. My goal is what inspired me to work on a farm for my internship, and it’s why my Capstone question looks at the struggles and opportunities that arise from direct farm marketing because, one day, I will be buying directly from the farmers and aiming to pay them fairly for their work.

Beth Wheat speaks about her dual role on “In Our Nature” podcast

Written by

No matter what’s she’s done and where’s she’s gone, she’s drawn to planting seeds and growing food.

Beth at SkyRoots, her farm on Whidbey Island.
Beth at SkyRoots, her farm on Whidbey Island.

Achieving financial sustainability through regenerative agriculture is tough, but it’s a worthwhile endeavor for Elizabeth Wheat, who runs SkyRoot Farm and teaches at UW’s Program on the Environment.

A recent recipient of the College of the Environment’s outstanding teaching award (she also received the UW’s excellence in teaching award back in 2010) and a Husky Green award earlier this year, Elizabeth Wheat is known and adored for her enthusiastic teaching style and love for food, farming and community.

Students gush about her, and many at UW enjoy her farm’s CSA produce.

Listen to UW Sustainability’s podcast to get a taste of the infamous Beth Wheat’s energy, to understand more about regenerative agriculture, and to hear what it’s like to be both a farmer and an educator.

On balancing her dual roles:

“Balance is not my aim, it’s a structural revolution in our food system, and this sense of urgency is what drives me forward and fuels me.”

Regenerative agriculture restores ecosystem function on an agricultural landscape. One of the primary tools is the management of organic matter on the soil.

Sky Root is focused on the life of the soil. On 20 acres of land on South Whidbey Island, Beth integrates animals into their production. Chicken, goats, ducks and worms all facilitate the growth of the vegetables on the farm.

IN OUR NATURE PODCAST EPISODE 5: BETH WHEAT

Student research reveals barriers to bike riding in one Seattle neighborhood

Written by

Program on the Environment student Ziyi Liu interned with Seattle Neighborhoods Greenways for his Capstone project, to learn why so few people bike in Seattle’s Chinatown International District, and what factors prevent people from traveling on two wheels.

Ziyi’s research question asked: “How does bike infrastructure affect cycling safety in the Chinatown-International District?”

His findings revealed that safety was a huge concern, and that in the International District there are very few protected bike lanes, compared to other busy neighborhoods in Seattle. With added infrastructure and smarter design, biking could become more accessible to residents.

“A protected bike lane is not only for cyclists, but it’s for everybody—it’s about the community and community happiness.” – Ziyi Liu

Ziyi’s findings indicate that building a connected network of protected bike lanes encourages more people to bike, and gives better transportation choices to individuals of all ages and abilities especially in parts of the city with lower car ownership. Ziyi also looked at the demographics of who bikes in Seattle and found some upward trends.

Read more about Ziyi’s research findings in the post below by International Examiner and see his Twitter presentation explaining his Environmental Studies Capstone experience.

http://www.iexaminer.org/2018/07/why-dont-more-people-bike-in-the-chinatown-id-lack-of-bike-infrastructure-makes-them-feel-unsafe/

Student Capstone projects highlight impact beyond borders and across oceans

Written by

Program on the Environment’s Spring 2018 Capstone Symposium featured 38 projects that addressed an array of environmental challenges students worked on for 9 months. From greening UW’s sport facilities to assessing water quality, piloting waste management plans and exploring the impact of environmental education, students shared their work with passion and finesse.

The symposium, held twice a year, drew colleagues, faculty advisors and students from across campus as well as parents and community (Capstone) partners. Students excitedly shared tidbits of what they learned on Twitter, under the #POEcap hashtag.

After tallying the evaluations of volunteer judges, Capstone instructor P. Sean McDonald determined the winning presenters, who were honored at the June graduation celebration:

Danielle Bogardus, Best Oral Presentation

E.W.W!! Education, Waste, and Water: A case study in the Las Piedras Region of Peru

Since her freshman year, Danielle has been working with Hoja Nueva, a non-profit founded by fellow alum Samantha Zwicker. For her Capstone Danielle worked to develop a waste management toolkit for the communities within the Madres de Dios region of Peru, as part of an effort to combat the negative impacts of unsustainable landfills on the community’s health and the environment. The toolkit includes waste auditing, water sampling and mentality survey strategies and has resulted in the implementation of improved waste management practices in three communities in the region.

Danielle recently founded her own non-profit, Connect Three, to continue the work she has done in Peru addressing waste management and water quality in developing communities. A pilot project in Ethiopia is already underway. 

Tyler Ung, Honorable Mention Oral Presentation

Raising environmental awareness in a digitized world: The effectiveness of visual art and photography

Tyler worked with the UW Center for Creative Conservation to highlight how visual art and photography can be an effective medium to raise environmental awareness and spur behavior change. He taught himself photography and super-imposed stencils he drew of human impacts on the natural environment, taking inspiration from Seattle, China and India. His science-based art project was part of his research that included the effective use of the art as a new model for sustainability and environmental education.

Tyler believes the integration of art to tell the story of different cultures, histories and environments is a powerful tool for shifting us towards a better future.Tyler’s art project, A Mind’s Meadow: Beauty Beyond Suppression is on display this summer at Axis in Pioneer Square, Seattle.

Summer Cook, Best Poster Presentation

Full circle in the remote tropics: 5 ways to optimize permaculture in unconventional settings

Summer Cook_capstoneSummer also interned with Hoja Nueva for her Capstone and went to Peru to work with the community to develop community-centered permaculture plots in Puerto Nuevo, located on the Piedras River in the Peruvian Amazon. Her case study sought to eliminate dependence on imports and sustain healthy, arable soil, a challenge within the region due to the difficulty growing crops in nutrient-poor soil and resulting insufficient access to adequate nutrition in diets.

Summer tested approaches for developing a community-centered permaculture planting plan. She conducted interviews with community members about current diet and desired fruits and vegetables and identified two potential planting sites, then tested each for macronutrient concentrations and soil fertility/microclimate parameters. She found five main methods to incorporate while designing a permaculture plan in the remote tropics and the plots, when complete, would provide nutrient-rich food for the communities.

Staci McMahon, Honorable Mention Poster Presentation

Predicting the effects of climate change on flatfish distributional shifts into the Chukchi Sea

Staci McMahon with her Capstone posterStaci interned with NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center to crunch some data and get an idea of which fish species would be able to thrive in the Chukchi Sea, a habitat that is changing rapidly due to rising temperatures. Working with resource selection models, Staci’s data results suggest that populations of Pacific halibut and arrowtooth flounder are likely to increase due to rising sea temperatures. The implications of these flatfish species moving northward could potentially transform the food webs and ecology of the Chukchi Sea.

Frieda Cohan and Beth Wheat honored at 2018 Husky Green Awards

Written by

Congratulations to this year’s Husky Green Award winners from Program on the Environment, Frieda Cohan and Beth Wheat!

2018 Husky Green Award winners Frieda Cohan and Elizabeth Wheat
2018 Husky Green Award winners Frieda Cohan and Elizabeth Wheat.

This year, our program is thrilled to spotlight these two enthusiastic leaders who are walking the walk on sustainability, through environmental stewardship of green space and gardens and heartfelt teaching.

The 2018 Husky Green Awards recipients were honored on April 20 on Red Square as part of UW Earth Day celebrations. The awards are in their ninth year of recognizing leaders on the UW campus who demonstrate their dedication to the environment.

Frieda is an Environmental Studies major and plays an active role in the community. She took part in an independent study garden build project last year to help design the program’s Sustainable Learning Space, a recently restored garden space dedicated for outdoor learning. She took on the role of garden steward, helping to maintain the space by clearing the trails and planting native species. Frieda recently returned from Spring at Sea, where she spent three weeks aboard the R/V Revelle learning about oceanography and feeding her passion for marine conservation.

“A big part of sustainability to me is creating safe and welcoming spaces for discussion and dialogue, ensuring that all people feel empowered to take action.” – Frieda Cohan

As part of her leadership on campus, Frieda is co-president of SAGE (the Student Association for Green Environments), and co-organizes activities and events such as last year’s Art to Inspire, a group effort to gather the UW community to celebrate art as a vehicle for raising environmental awareness.

Frieda digging up some dirt during the construction of the Sustainable Learning Space.
Frieda digging up some dirt during the construction of the Sustainable Learning Space.

She has coordinated recycling efforts at UW football games as part of her involvement with SAGE and last year UW Athletics recorded their highest waste diversion rates ever.

After she graduates, Frieda will help onboard the next Sustainable Learning Space garden steward and then embark on a grand adventure to travel through SE Asia and parts of Africa, an experience made possible by her recent award as a Bonderman travel fellow.

In her own words: “Over the last few years the environmental community at UW has become my home, and the unwavering compassion and strength of my peers, faculty, and staff never ceases to inspire and guide me. A big part of sustainability to me is creating safe and welcoming spaces for discussion and dialogue, ensuring that all people feel empowered to take action. And though the natural world is a shared experience, its beauty and significance remains unique to each beholder, and each reasoning for protecting it is critical.”

Beth at SkyRoots, her farm on Whidbey Island.
Beth at SkyRoots, her farm on Whidbey Island.

Beth is a lecturer at Program on the Environment and teaches a variety of courses, including The Urban Farm, Attaining a Sustainable Society, Introduction to Environmental Studies and Agro-ecology of Cascadia. Awarded the UW’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 2010, Beth exudes passion and inspires students to mindfully navigate the world when making decisions that impact others.

In her own words: “Sustainability means confronting our privilege and asking ourselves how we arrived in the place where we are in regards to our relationship with the planet and with each other. We can’t solve the issues facing our planet today without consciously confronting the economic and societal institutions that brought us here. Working on sustainability in this context with our students is a source of great joy for me!”

Beth’s interest in agriculture grew after working on the UW Farm as a graduate student and today she sits on the board of the Farm and frequently takes her class onto the farm at UW, to increase students’ awareness around sustainable urban agriculture. She also takes students to her own farm, SkyRoots, on Whidbey Island, to demonstrate how small-scale integrated farms can provide sustenance, while giving back to the earth and to the farmers. A shared meal and laughter always follows.

“Sustainability means confronting our privilege and asking ourselves how we arrived in the place where we are in regards to our relationship with the planet and with each other.” -Beth Wheat

Read more about Beth’s teaching path and love for sustainable agriculture on the Whole U Faculty Friday spotlight.

Faculty Friday: Elizabeth Wheat

Written by

Elizabeth Wheat
Elizabeth Wheat

Today we celebrate Beth Wheat, committed Program on the Environment lecturer and founder of SkyRoot Farm on Whidbey Island, who will receive a Husky Green Award at the Earth Day festivities on Red Square.

In Whole U’s Faculty Friday spotlight, Beth shares her love for growing food, a love that was born when she was a graduate student at UW, and grew to become a full fledged passion.

She shares this passion with us all, through her partnership with the UW Farm; through the classes she teaches: The Urban Farm, Sustainable Societies and Agro-Ecology of Cascadia; and through SkyRoot, a 20-acre integrated animal and vegetable farm on Whidbey Island. The farm takes an ecosystem-based approach to land management and agriculture (which includes using goats to maintain the blackberries, ducks to control the slug population and poultry to build the soil and manage the weeds).

Beth often takes students to SkyRoot Farm as an active-learning experience to show them how urban agriculture practices can benefit the environment and human health. She believes that changing how small-scale farms operate can contribute to solving the climate change problem—capturing carbon in the form of organic matter and storing it in the reserves of soil. In her teaching practices, she impresses upon her students the importance of connecting to their heart space, and how the trade-offs they face in our modern society can be influenced by the difference they want to make in the world.

Read more at Whole U

“Working a small farm is one of the most powerful jobs a person can do in that it leads to health in a lot of ways—there’s a cascading impact.” – Elizabeth Wheat

 

Piloting a “Global Flip” study abroad experience in China

Written by

With today’s technology, distance is no longer a barrier, and collaborating with learners halfway around the world is a tangible reality.

Understanding this potential for enhanced learning and wanting to equip students with a global mindset, Dr. Kristi Straus piloted the UW’s first “Global Flip” in collaboration with Dr. Xi Lu at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. For students learning about sustainability, understanding the ways that the U.S. and China contribute to unsustainability, as well as the unique American and Chinese approaches to solutions, is vital. With Kristi’s class focusing on sustainability, forging a relationship with a university in China made sense.

The resulting experience was exciting and eye-opening for Kristi and the students.

Launching UW’s first Global Flipped Classroom

Shunxi Liu
Dr. Kristi Straus enjoying a lecture at Cabot (China).

Kristi was a Teaching Technology Fellow in 2014, and one of the first Evidence-Based Teaching (EBT) pilot members. She became an EBT coach in Spring 2016, supporting other faculty in understanding the research about effective teaching and then implementing changes in their classrooms. Through her leadership in these areas, Kristi was approached by the UW Office of the Provost about piloting the “Global Flip.”

Flipping the classroom allows students to engage in active learning and discussion in the classroom, while watching recorded lectures at home. This method aims to enrich learning and encourage more meaningful interaction among the instructor and students. In the Global Flip, Dr. Straus used the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) method, where students from Tsinghua and UW watched the same lecture videos and then interacted at their own Universities, and virtually, across the Pacific.

The course content grew out of  Kristi’s popular ENVIR 239: Sustainability and Personal Choices class which encourages students to ponder sustainability in their own lives and become more aware of choices they make.

UW students (left to right) Congshan Amanda Bai, TJ Gascho, Yushan Tong, and Shunxi Liu
Shunxi Liu
UW students (left to right) Congshan Amanda Bai, TJ Gascho, Yushan Tong, and Shunxi Liu in China.

The Global Flip empowers students to think more deeply about unique sustainability challenges faced by different societies and how culture shapes the resulting solutions that could emerge.

The culmination of this Autumn quarter class was a ten-day study abroad experience in Beijing, collaborating in person with the Tsinghua faculty and students whom they’d learned with virtually all quarter.

Dr. Straus took 15 UW students (including Environmental Studies, International Studies, and Environmental Sciences majors) to Beijing over the 2017 Winter Break.

Global engagement to be a world of good

Through frequent online collaborations, students from UW and Tsinghua University in Beijing grappled with questions such as: What does sustainability mean to us? What does unsustainability look like in our countries/cities/cultures? What problems do we face and how can we solve them?

Shunxi Liu
Dr. Lu and Dr. Straus leading a shared lecture, teaching an interactive class about salmon, hydropower and the removal of the Elwha Dam in Washington.

Students at Tsinghua University watched the lectures that Kristi taught at UW, setting up an incredible situation where students had in-person sessions at their own schools as well as access to an international, multi-cultural online learning environment, emphasizing collaboration between students in China and the U.S.

Says Kristi, “It is certainly innovative, helps us to learn together across boundaries, uses technology and the skills of our students while also teaching our students multicultural and multi-disciplinary collaboration and problem solving, virtually. I can’t imagine more important skills for this generation.”

The ten-day study abroad to Tsinghua University in Beijing was the culminating experience of the course. UW students collaborated  with the Tsinghua students, visited water treatment centers, solar and wind farms and waste management facilities, and discussed the viability of renewables meeting the country’s long-term energy needs. They heard from well-known researchers across China and saw first-hand how Beijing is doing from a sustainability perspective.

In addition, students learned about Chinese culture and history, visiting the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, and shared traditional meals with Tsinghua students.

For Program on the Environment student Shunxi Liu, participating in the study abroad experience was a great opportunity to converse with engineering and environmental management students in Professor Xi Lu’s global sustainability class at Tsinghua University and view Beijing through a sustainability lens.

“I see this program as planting the seed for future environmental collaboration between the U.S. and China, and I’m excited I was part of it!” – Shunxi Liu

Learning about sustainability in a global context

In 2016, China made the environment a priority. The Chinese government has set ambitious goals for reducing carbon emissions, and they’ve made headway.

UW Program on the Environment student, Shunxi Liu.
UW Program on the Environment student, Shunxi Liu.

UW students and Kristi remarked that the air pollution in Beijing was undetectable. “Maybe it was a combination of the good weather and the rapid implementation of China’s new regulations, but it was noticeable.”

Even more impressive were the tours where students learned about China’s hefty investment in sustainable technology and its rapid shifts in policies to adjust for air quality, even on a daily basis. Indeed, Beijing is focused primarily on environmental sustainability, just one of many contrasts to the efforts in the U.S. which look at economic and social impacts in addition to the environment.

One highlight of the whole experience for Shunxi was a field trip to an industrial area in suburban Beijing, a region which was among the most polluted areas in China. “They are working on integrating circular economy methods to reduce factory pollution and it’s incredible to see in action!”

Other noteworthy trips included visiting a cutting-edge renewable energy power plant. “We saw that China is putting a lot of effort on interdisciplinary scientific research in order to tackle our global environmental challenges,” reflected Shunxi. The Chinese government is also moving towards distributed solar systems to every household.

Field trip to Yanqing photovoltaic power station
Shunxi Liu
Field trip to Yanqing photovoltaic power station, China.

All in all, the learning was profound, and the students exhibited patience and adaptability in their new environment, soaking up Chinese culture, knowledge, and way of life. Between the online intercultural collaboration and the short-term, affordable study abroad program, this unique course helps bring global perspectives to students who may not otherwise get it at UW, which increases access and equity at our University.

Kristi’s course will run again this Fall quarter and Winter break 2018. Interested students can apply now.

Sean McDonald speaks about the value of translational ecology, March 7

Written by

This month’s Rabinowitz Speaker Series: Society’s Role in a Changing Environment, co-hosted by Program on the Environment and School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, is next week, Wednesday, March 7.

Please note the date change! Join us from 4:30–6pm in Wallace Hall Commons. Faculty talks are followed by Q&A and time for mingling. Light refreshments served.

Our March speaker is Program on the Environment lecturer Dr. P. Sean McDonald. The title of his talk is: Lost in translation? Making marine ecology more relevant to environment-related decision making.

Dr. McDonald will discuss the value of translational ecology and interdisciplinary environmental studies in addressing marine resource issues in fisheries, aquaculture, and conservation. In particular he will discuss tools and approaches to support decisions in natural resource management using three recent case studies in social-ecological systems centered around geoduck aquaculture in south Puget Sound, invasive green crab in NE Pacific estuaries, and Pribilof Island blue king crab recovery.

Bio

Sean is a faculty member in the Program on the Environment where he teaches environmental communications and directs the Capstone activities of Environmental Studies students (2010-present). Twice nominated for the UW Distinguished Teaching Award, Sean strives to connect his student’s classroom learning with real-world professional experience and research. 

In addition to his teaching and research, Sean is passionate about linking people and science. As co-PI of Washington Sea Grant’s CrabTeam, he’s helped develop an extremely successful citizen science monitoring program for Salish Sea pocket estuaries. He also spearheads SciCommSwarm, an initiative developing a platform to connect scientists and journalists, and he co-organizes and Emcee’s Climate Science on Tap, a monthly science communication event for the public. 

Sean earned a B.S. in biology (Marine emphasis) from Western Washington University, and a doctorate in Aquatic and Fishery Sciences from the University of Washington. He has served on the governing board for the Pacific Coast Section of the National Shellfisheries Association for more than a decade. His research interests center on marine ecology and natural resource issues, in which he focuses on applying ecological principles to problems involving exploitation, cultivation, and conservation of aquatic species in a changing global landscape. In particular, he is interested in responses to major agents of ecosystem change, such as climate change and invasive species, in human and natural systems.

A backcountry ranger shares her passion for the wilderness

Written by

Wilderness means different things to visitors of the country’s national parks and wild lands. For Program on the Environment alumni Emily Noyd, who was featured in REI’s Keepers of the Outdoors series, being outside and helping people navigate relatively untouched lands is an incredibly rewarding experience.

Emily Noyd in her office, Yosemite National Park
Brian Turner
Emily Noyd in her office, Yosemite National Park

 

Emily is currently a backcountry ranger in Yosemite National Park, where 94 percent of the park’s land is wilderness. In this job, she helps others experience the awe and understand the importance of protected lands. Her passion for protecting wild places and park service work flourished after an impactful summer climate change fellowship while studying at UW. She kept building the skills she learned that summer and found her curiosity and interest in engaging with people made her a good fit for the job she has now.

“I think it’s really special to be part of something that’s bigger than myself. That’s why I go outside.” – Emily Noyd

Read more about Emily’s role in the full story, written by Program on the Environment alumni, adventure writer Charlotte Austin!

Read more at REI

Environmental Studies Capstone winners skillfully cover food security, urban waste design, fishery certification and plant-microbe partnerships.

Written by

Last week’s Capstone Symposium presenters did not disappoint. With an array of oral and poster presentations showcasing work with business, campus, nonprofit and government partners on topics ranging from global conservation to implementing sustainable practices in corporations, choosing winners was tough.

Riley Smith, Shruti Parikh, Sydney Barnes-Grant and Lola Behrens with Capstone Instructor Sean Mc Donald.
Riley Smith, Shruti Parikh, Sydney Barnes-Grant and Lola Behrens with Capstone Instructor Sean Mc Donald.

The results are in though (thanks to faculty and alumni judges), and the winning presenters have bragging rights for life. Congratulations to Riley, Shruti, Sydney and Lola!

The Environmental Studies Capstone highlights students work resulting from a three quarter long course series that encompasses an internship with partner organizations at UW and across Seattle.

Here’s a look at the four winning Capstone projects.

Lola Behrens

Project Title: Cultivating Food Security
Best Poster Presentation

Lola’s Capstone internship with Good Cheers Food Bank & Thrift Stores focused on learning how to mitigate food insecurity. Good Cheers is located on South Whidbey Island and is committed to providing healthy locally sourced food to residents in need. The organization provides resources to sustain healthy eating habits and contribute towards the long-term health outcomes of its community.

Through her research Lola learned that in 2016, 12.3% of households in the United States were food insecure, (these households were unable to obtain enough food to adequately feed every member of the family). She observed and interviewed food bank users, and supplemented her research with a review of relevant literature:

“I found that three important factors (pillars of Good Cheers) in mitigating food insecurity include: the adoption of health-oriented point systems by food banks, the advocacy and facilitation of food sovereignty, and a deliberate effort to develop a sense of community within local food systems.” 

Lola Behren's Capstone poster.
Lola Behren’s Capstone poster.

Sydney Barnes-Grant

Project Title: Optimization of urban waste design
Best Oral Presentation

Sydney worked with the U.S. EPA, Region 10 to address the issue of aquatic trash. During her research, Sydney found that most people take less than two seconds to determine where they dispose of their trash and that land sources are responsible for 80 percent of trash in oceans.

A snapshot of Sydney's Capstone work.
A snapshot of Sydney’s Capstone work.

As part of her internship for the EPA’s Trash Free Waters program, Sydney wanted to build a public waste management tool to deal with land-based trash. She created a protocol based on California’s Urban Rapid Trash Assessment methodology to locate and track urban litter hotspots. Using ArcGIS technology, Sydney mapped litter hotspots in three water adjacent neighborhoods in Seattle, WA.

This type of monitoring can be used to inform city planning to optimize waste receptacle locations, using smarter design and strategic placement near litter hotspots. Sydney will continue her good work with the EPA in ongoing efforts to keep trash out of our waterways.

Riley Smith

Project Title: Greener than thou: Impacts of environmental and social sustainability certification on the Alaska fishery
Honorable Mention Poster Presentation

Riley worked with the Pacific Seafood Processor’s Association to examine the impacts of environmental and social sustainability certification on Alaska fisheries. He researched the effectiveness of eco-labels as marketing tools to ensure equitably grown food, and identified side effects that certifications can have.

Riley found that in fisheries, the leading eco-label is that of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which focuses on fisheries management and environmental sustainability, yet excludes human rights and labor standards for certification. This revealed to him a gap that needed addressing.

“The issues of human rights and sustainability in fisheries is what catalyzed my Capstone research!” stated Riley, who measured the adherence of the Alaska Salmon and Pollock fisheries to the environmental, human rights and labor standards of the Responsible Fishing Scheme. His research and review of governing regulations found third-party certification is often biased towards industrialized, large-scale fisheries and places the burden of cost for certification on the producers.

Riley graduates this quarter and will work as a contract researcher on a grant with the Alaskan Fisheries Development Foundation and NOAA on the topic of socially responsible practices on vessels.

Riley Smith's Capstone poster.
Riley Smith’s Capstone poster.

Shruti Parikh

Project Title: Using plant-microbe partnerships to help salt-impacted crops
Honorable Mention, Oral Presentation

Shruti knows a lot about endophytes (beneficial bacteria that live in plants) and has been working in Sharon Doty’s UW Lab for two years to test the potential of the microbes to reduce plant stress caused by high salinity.

A snapshot of Shruti's Capstone work.
A snapshot of Shruti’s Capstone work.

High salinity is a type of abiotic stress that effects crop productivity and quality. Through her research, Shruti found that in 2010, about half of the world’s cropland was facing salinity stress. There are very few plants that can tolerate high levels of salt however, the Doty Lab looks at endophytes that live within plants as potential allies to help plants tolerate these stressors in a more natural way.

The goal of Shruti’s study was to isolate and test endophytes to determine whether they colonize other plants and help the plants cope with high salinity conditions. She tested the initial stress tolerance of various crop plants, and performed plant studies to demonstrate whether the endophytes improve plant growth. The results showed visible signs of higher stress tolerance in poplar plants inoculated with a certain endophyte, SSP8. Big picture potential: by improving plant growth, these bacteria will help promote sustainable agricultural practices and bioenergy production.

Shruti received a Mary Gates Scholarship earlier this year for her research on using plants to purify air and reduce pollutants such as arsenic. Her research interests continue to expand!