Friday, April 3, 2009
The SPEA Auction and Gala, formerly known as the Spring Student Professional Enrichment Auction, is a fundraising event for professional development scholarships for current and incoming SPEA graduate students. The event aims to support student professional development opportunities for SPEA graduate and Ph.D. students that may otherwise be unattainable due to financial constraints. SPEA students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members are all involved!
The resources raised
will give students the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills they have
obtained at SPEA to advance research, strengthen their communities, and share
their experiential knowledge in their classrooms, activities, and
projects. These opportunities will increase students' professional
networks and broaden the reputation of SPEA.
Testimonials from students who benefitted from past auctions
With the funding I received from the Spring S.P.E.A. I was able to accept an internship in the summer of 2007 with the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia. This internship was based in the Kyrgyz Republic, at the Foundation’s offices in Bishkek and Osh. My main duty as an intern was to design and implement a research project on the relationship between international donors and local NGOs and on the impact of donor funding on civil society development in the Kyrgyz Republic. To carry out this project, I interviewed representatives of the international donor community, as well as local NGOs. These interviews were conducted in both English and Russian, and in various locations throughout the country. After completing the interviews, I synthesized my findings, highlighting best practices, as well as areas in which the donor community and local NGOs suffer from misunderstandings. The results will hopefully be used by the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia and other donor organizations to work more effectively with local NGOs.
The funding I received from the Spring S.P.E.A. was invaluable to me, as it allowed me to accept this internship. Without the funding, I would have been unable to afford to travel to the Kyrgyz Republic. Being able to intern at a development organization “in the field” provided me with a better understanding of how development projects affect local people. By being in the Kyrgyz Republic I came to understand how development issues, discussed in classrooms in SPEA and in offices in Washington, have real impacts, both positive and negative, on those who they are designed to “help”. This understanding will undoubtedly give me an advantage as I look for jobs, and will also ensure that I am more conscientious and conscious of the “development project” and its impacts.
The duties of my position included developing, implementing, and monitoring a water conservation program involving academic research and residential buildings on the IUB campus. We looked at water use data for academic and residential (dorms) buildings on campus over the past six years. Using that data we ferreted out trends and other information that will help us to suggest water and energy (and consequently money) saving strategies for IU. We also developed and discussed water use policies on campus with university officials, and researched the best and most cost-effective way(s) to encourage smart use of a scarce resource such as water.
We worked side-by-side with the sustainability commission to develop a report detailing
current water metering status and practices on campus, outlining innovative metering
solutions on other similar campuses, and suggesting future metering strategies to improve
campus sustainability. We used current water metering data from campus to help build our case.
The grant money I received from the Spring S.P.E.A. allowed me to travel to the U.S.
Green Building Council’s Greenbuild 2007 Conference. I attended sessions where I heard from city officials and employees who have developed and implemented green building programs, developers who are at the forefront of green building and sustainable
neighborhood development, and many others about the challenges and benefits of green
building. In addition, Former President Bill Clinton gave the keynote address, informing
the audience of the work that his Clinton Climate Initiative, a program of the Clinton
Foundation, is doing to help finance the retrofitting of existing buildings to make the
more energy efficient.
This opportunity was especially helpful to me because through my Service Corp placement at the Office of the Mayor, I was developing green building resources for Bloomington. The City of Bloomington Environmental Commission was leading the work to develop a green building ordinance, requiring new City facilities to be built to LEED standards. LEED standards are developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, and at Greenbuild I was able to learn more about other cities that have developed LEED standards for their own buildings. More broadly, the experience allowed me to get out of the policy bubble and meet with individuals involved with actually building and designing green buildings. As we move forward with green building in Bloomington, I am able to apply some of the lessons I learned from other cities.
Receiving funds from the Spring Student Professional Enrichment Auction provided me with the opportunity to expand my knowledge and make professional contacts in an area of professional interest. After spending the summer working in an electronics recycling
program in Washington State, I was able to follow up my experience there by attending a
professional conference on electronics recycling. At the conference, I met and heard
presentations from national and state-level policymakers on this issue as well as
entrepreneurs in the electronics recycling industry. Meeting these people provided depth
and context to my knowledge of the policymaking challenges associated with encouraging the recycling of growing volumes of electronic waste. I was also able to share my knowledge of the implementation of legislation in Washington on this emerging issue.
I made several professional contacts on the trip with individuals from state environmental agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency. I also spoke with representatives of an electronics recycling company based in my home state of Wisconsin, who I have since kept in touch with about legislative developments on this issue in Wisconsin.
Finally, attending the conference provided me with resources and program information
which I have used in my SPEA capstone course, whose mission is to assess the sustainability of the computing infrastructure at SPEA.
The grant award from SPEA’s Student Professional Enrichment Auction gave me the opportunity to attend and present at Ohio University’s 9th Annual Women of Appalachia Conference in Zanesville, Ohio in October of 2007. My presentation entitled, “A fight against mountain top removal coal mining: Female influence on natural resource policy in Appalachia,” offered my research on this controversial coal mining practice that has both figuratively and literally consumed the region for which the conference is named. Much of the advocacy and activism against the practice and in defense of the region’s natural resources is being led by Appalachian women. However, the destructive nature of mountain top removal coal mining and its impacts on the people of Appalachia has been largely ignored in the academic worlds of science and policy. The chance to share my research in an academic setting that celebrates this otherwise marginalized region and culture was significant.
The grant award was beneficial to me in many respects beyond the logistics of funding conference fees and travel expenses. Since I had no prior conference presentations, the opportunity to participate at Ohio University gave me valuable experience for future endeavors and bolstered my resume, which was surely a contributing factor for my acceptance into SPEA’s PhD program in Environmental Science. Moreover, as a woman who was born and raised in Appalachia, the opportunity to contribute to the scholarship and research about the region was self-fulfilling and served as a chance for me to “give back” to my home. The experience allowed me the opportunity to network with key researchers in the field, and to share my findings with others whose work may positively impact the management of this region’s rich resources.
Last Updated: March 1, 2009