Environmental News From The New School

Summer 2009

NEW YORK, August 17, 2009—This summer, students from The New School’s Environmental Studies program applied their coursework in the field, partnering with organizations from New York to Anchorage to promote sustainability and green living.

Endeavor Foundation Funds NYC Metro Internships

This summer, eight students undertook summer internships with prominent environmental organizations in and around New York City. Funded through a grant from the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, the internships provided students with an opportunity to gain valuable field experience in the areas of community ecology, sustainable business practices, and urban farming.

The internships included: an initiative to raise community awareness about urban farming at Added Value, an organization that promotes sustainable development in Red Hook, Brooklyn; a look inside the food production cycle at Stone Barns, the local farm, education center, and source for celebrated farm-to-table restaurant Blue Hill in Tarrytown, New York; a water-testing program at Solar One, the Lower East Side green energy, arts, and education center; an evaluation of urban forest restoration efforts at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation; and a program to help small Manhattan business to adopt sustainable practices at the Lower East Side Ecology Center.

To read more about the summer intern experience, please visit http://envirostudies.parsons.edu/.

Two Students Travel to Anchorage in Pursuit of Renewable Energy

Across the country, Nora Gecan and Laura Silverman spent their summer break in Anchorage, Alaska as part of the Tishman Environmental Merit Scholars program. The 12-week program, co-sponsored by the Alaska Conservation Foundation, pairs two outstanding students with a paid internship with a top conservation agency in Alaska.

This year, both students worked with nonprofits that focus on Alaska’s renewable energy efforts. Gecan partnered with REAP: Renewable Energy Alaska Project on a proposed commuter railway initiative between Anchorage and the Matanuska-Sustina Valley. Silverman partnered with the Alaska Conservation Alliance, an advocacy nonprofit representing over 40 organizations across the state, on their renewable energy “Crossroads Campaign.”

To read about Gecan and Silverman’s work in Alaska, visit http://noraandlaurainak.blogspot.com.

Clinton Global Initiative Grants $9,000 to Tree Mapping Initiative

R. Griffin Johnston, a senior, was awarded a Clinton Global Initiative University Outstanding Commitment grant to work on a field guide to New York City trees. The $9,000 grant, which was the second largest in this round of funding, was awarded based on Johnston’s work this past spring as a research assistant on S+EM, an environmental mapping and social networking design project, where he oversaw the GIS mapping of New School campus-area trees.

The guide is part of a larger collective ecology research, design, and community outreach effort that Johnston is undertaking with the guidance of Timon McPhearson, assistant professor of urban ecology at Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts, and adjunct faculty members Phil Silva and Liz Barry.

Johnston is creating a field kit that members of the local community can use to collect and input both ecological and stewardship data on New York City street trees. This kit will be part of an interactive field guide to city trees currently under development at the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School, which administers the Environmental Studies program. The pilot stage of the field guide can be viewed at http://www.stemproject.org/.

About Environmental Studies At The New School

Launched in fall 2008, The New School’s undergraduate degree program in environmental studies is distinct in its focus on design and the urban environment. Through a combination of studio, laboratory, and seminar courses, students learn to design solutions for real-world environmental issues. Since its founding, The New School has set itself apart with its focus on civic engagement, and its long history of partnering with nonprofit organizations to address important social issues through design, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Sierra Club. For more information, visit www.newschool.edu/environmentalstudies.

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