A curiosity about the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in environmental policy making led me to seek an internship with an environmental NGO. The Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies provided me with the opportunity to explore my interests further with the Oregon Environmental Council (OEC). The mission of OEC is to restore and protect Oregon's clean water and air, now and for future generations. As the oldest statewide environmental advocacy group, OEC brings Oregonians together to create and promote socially just and economically sound environmental policies. Within the organization there are six programs that are directed by one staff member (legislative affairs, environmental equity, air and transportation, water, pesticides and toxics, and sustainable economy).

My learning objectives for the internship were to get first hand experience in seeing how environmental policy is created, and the role of non-government organizations in policy making. I wanted to become involved with one or two specific projects throughout my time there, so that I would be able to understand a topic fully and understand the research process that goes into policy making. I knew that my responsibilities would be that of a policy research intern, conducting policy research and completing some administrative work.

I was able to focus on two projects during my summer with OEC. I first worked on a "Healthy Schools Project" with the pesticides and toxics program director. The goal of my research was to determine if OEC should consider obtaining a grant and moving forward with a new healthy schools project. All of my research was preliminary, designed to determine the scope of environmental health problems in Oregon schools, and what is being done across the nation to address environmental health hazards in schools. I completed the research through the web, phone interviews, newspaper reports, and other primary resources. I was able to see the very beginning steps of a project, and how an organization determines what projects they want to take on. The results of my research indicate that there are many environmental health problems in Oregon's schools and there is no regulatory agency or personnel within the schools responsible for ensuring their environmental quality. After the extensive research that I completed, OEC did decide to apply for a grant to fund a healthy schools project. It was fortunate that I was able to be involved with the healthy schools project from its inception and to initiate the research for the organization.

The second half of the summer I worked with the water program director on a water conservation project that was already in its middle stages. The organization had received a grant to explore different water conservation policies and to create a water conservation task force team, representative of various constituencies, to help address water conservation issues throughout Oregon. I researched various water conservation policies that are being implemented nationwide, searched for model cities with notable water conservation policies, and searched for innovative funding sources for water conservation programs. I completed research through searching the web, interviewing staff of municipal water programs, reading city reports, and other primary resources. Though this project sounds simple, I found very few solid water conservation policies and programs. Upon completing the research I wrote the section of the water conservation white paper about policies and funding. Once the entire white paper is completed it will be published with me as co-author, and it will be used to lobby for water conservation projects in Oregon.

Through both projects I was able to work in different stages of environmental policy making, fulfilling my goal of wanting to see first hand the making of environmental policies. Not only did I complete research that is being put into policies, but also I experienced working in the office during the final weeks of the Oregon legislative session. I was able to follow the updates, listen to the daily activity, and witness the politics and energy put into passing a bill through the legislature. In fact, during this session the legislature passed a mercury reduction bill that was sponsored by OEC.

I also had the opportunity to attend the organization's strategic planning meeting. At this meeting, which was facilitated by independent consultants, OEC staff and board members discussed the future of OEC. I witnessed the OEC staff and board evaluate the organization's role in the community, discuss how they were and were not achieving their mission statement and what the organization needs to do to become more efficient. All in all the strategic planning meeting allowed me to witness the planning and discussion that determine the actions of non-governmental and non-profit organizations.

My experience with OEC allowed me to see how non-governmental organizations operate, their role in informing the community and influencing the legislative process. This year I will continue to explore the role of such organizations by studying how communities become activated and how they catalyze change. More specifically, I am pursuing the healthy schools project in my honor's thesis titled "Social and political mobilization: Routes to successful changes in environmental health conditions in Connecticut and Oregon schools." The aim of the project is to determine how communities and non-governmental organizations have been successful in mobilizing to reduce environmental health hazards in schools. Theories of social mobilization will be applied to determine what has made movements effective. Case studies from Connecticut and Oregon will be used to determine how social movements have formed around environmental health hazards in schools, and what the responses from the schools and government agencies have been.