Intern Update - December 2020

 

From the Cross-Campus Sustainability Intern Meet-Up with Swarthmore and Princeton

The nine Zilkha Center Interns have been working hard this fall often with campus stakeholders to advance sustainability in particular areas.  

Rika and Lauren, the ZC’s Zero Waste Interns, are working closely with Post Landfill Action Network and campus colleagues to conduct visioning sessions around zero waste infrastructure and systems that align with the goals from the sustainability strategic plan.    More information can be found here.

Sofia and Mico, ZC Sustainable Food Interns, are researching the intersections and overlaps of two sustainable food frameworks that we think will help us make progress towards a more sustainable campus food system – Cool Food Pledge and Real Food Challenge, the latter of which we have been utilizing for the past five years. Additionally they are about to begin analyzing Dining Services’ food purchases from the past year and use the Real Food Calculator to compile a Real Food Report.  For past reports, visit the sustainable food page.  

Tali and Alisha are working to make campus sustainability more legible and transparent as communication interns. This includes managing our instagram, writing stories, and publishing this newsletter.  For past newsletters, visit our Contact Us page

Theo holding up an uprooted plant from the garden
Rosa weeding the asparagus to prepare them for the winter

Rosa and Theo are garden and landscaping interns at the ‘66 Environmental Center, and they have not only been getting their hands dirty but also engaging students, faculty, and staff alike through offerings of tea from leaves harvested on site to inspiring cooking challenges in the safety of everyone’s home spaces.  While the hands-on gardening work won’t be possible for a while, they are beginning to do some spring planning and also looking at the larger campus landscape.

Pizza with sautéed Jerusalem artichoke, walking onion, pine nuts, and basil by Deputy Director and Curator of Contemporary Art Lisa Dorin. This delicious dish was submitted to the cooking challenge organized by Rosa and Theo.
Roasted Fall Hash of Jerusalem Artichokes, walking onions, yukon gold potato and garlic in a sage brown butter sauce over arugula topped with fresh chives accompanied by Mediterranean Lamb Meatballs with a drizzle of feta-garlic aioli. This wonderful fall dish was created by Michelle Waryjasz, Financial Aid Technical Coordinator.

Lastly, Molly is mapping our sustainability strategic plan goals and strategies onto the STARS framework to see where we might score and to see what we might be missing – as well as looking at the other sustainability rating systems.

You can read more about our interns here.