Alumni Spotlight

Rachael Towers '02

Rachael joined us at our Certificate Program Dinner Reception on Thursday, September 7th, 2006 in Buck Lodge. She spoke with the students about her experiences with horticultural therapy which served as a perfect introduction to the theme of our seminar this semester: Nature in Mind: Concepts and Perspectives in Environmental Psychology.

Rachael recently began volunteering part time at the North Carolina Botanical Garden. She works with the horticultural therapy program, which is based on the idea that working with plants can provide physical and emotional benefits for those involved. Within this program, Rachael works with people who have some sort of limiting disability or illness--mental illness, brain and spinal cord injuries. They also work with the mentally challenged, elderly people who have some memory/hearing/sight impairment or who are just 'slowing down'. Most of the work they do with the participants focuses on projects that are not only interesting for them, but also serve a function for the garden. The participants, who might otherwise be marginalized in society, can become active and important members of the community.A big project they have just started involves creating culturally-themed vegetable gardens. They will have Japanese, Native American, Hispanic, and African-American gardens.

Rachael is working towards accreditation by the American Horticultural Therapy Association (www.ahta.org). With her BA and the coursework for the CCBES certificate, she has already attained the point value she needs for the first level (Horticultural Therapy Assistant). She needs to complete the minimum number of volunteer hours to be accredited.

Leys Bostrum '02

Leys recently started a nonprofit organization called the Boston Youth Fundraising Campaign (BYFC), which raises money to send Boston-area children on an international educational trip. BYFC is sponsoring five students, who otherwise would not have an opportunity like this, to go on a trip to France in April '06. Leys is an avid traveller and believes that the global classroom is a key component in the "enrichment of a student's educational experience." Many do not have the financial means to explore the world, and create new perspectives for themselves. The goal of BYFC is to give as many Boston-area children as possible the chance to develop in ways that are uniquely achieved through international travel. Check out their website: www.thebyfc.org.

Lauren Richter `05

Lauren has earned a prestigious membership in the American Sociological Association Honors Program with her paper “Geographic Inequality in New London.” For more information about her accomplishment, please read the article here.

Jared Fertman '03

Katie (Jones) Kozin `03
Katie was featured in the Fall 2003 issue of CC: Connecticut College Magazine.
Read the article in pdf format here:
Wilderness, the Wild, and the Leave No Trace Ethic

Marjorie Lundgren '02
Marjorie's paper "Influence of Land Use and Site Characteristics on Invasive Plant Abundance in the Quinebaug Highlands of Southern New England," has been published in the scientific journal Northeastern Naturalist, Volume 11.
This paper is an extension of research that she completed for her SIP/honors thesis during the summer of 2000 and the following academic year. She worked with Professor Christine Small, and was advised by Professor Glenn Dreyer, both botany professors at Conn College. Their research was conducted in the Quinebaug Highlands, which is an 34,000 acre area protected by The Nature Conservancy, located in Northeastern Connecticut and Southern Massachusetts. Marjorie's study was focused on the distribution and abundance of non-native invasive plant species, relative to the proximity to and size of roads, trails, and unbroken forest. Her study also included the effects of historical land use, current land use, as well as various natural factors.
Currently, Marjorie is enrolled in the botany PhD program at Wesleyan University, in Middletown, CT.

See Marjorie's Paper here.

Emily Templin `02

Connecticut College Alum helps block largest water
privatization deal in the United States:
Green Corps training the next generation of environmental leaders.

"As an environmental studies major and Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies scholar at Connecticut College I was constantly presented with daunting social and environmental problems and searching for a way that I could make a difference", Emily Templin, class of '02. "I have now been given the opportunity to have a real impact as a Green Corps fellow."
Green Corp's mission is to train the next generation of environmental and social change leaders through classroom training and hands on experience in a year long paid fellowship program. After green Corps training Emily has been working in New Orleans to protect the public's control of the water system from what would have been the largest municipal water system privatization in the United States.
"The two companies vying for the rights to control New Orleans water system have had terrible track records throughout the world. In fact, just this summer the residents of Atlanta had to boil their water on four different occasions in order to make it drinkable. In other countries, rates have increased to the point that residents have had to choose between food and water. At the end of the day there is no justice in turning water- our most basic, common resource- into a commodity for profit."
With her Green Corps training, Templin was able to create a coalition of over 90 churches, community groups, labor unions and environmental organizations, all working to protect the city's water system. In New Orleans hundreds of volunteers got involved, signing and delivering over 5,000 postcards to the mayor, meeting with decision-makers and running press conferences that garnered over 60 media hits in just two months. Only month's after Templin helped launch the massive grassroots campaign, the city of New Orleans voted to block the $1 billion bid that would have been the largest water privatization deal in the history of the United States."
The work that Templin completed in New Orleans surrounding water privatization has set an example that cities across the world will follow as they are faced with the decision of whether or not to turn the control of their water over to private hands. In fact, after Templin's coalition shared their experiences with Toronto officials, Toronto followed the precedent set in New Orleans and decided not to privatize the water system.
"With the Green Corps I have found work that I love while making lasting steps towards social change. It is hard to believe that I have only been out of Connecticut College for 6 months and I've already been able to make this kind of impact. My experiences at Connecticut College and in the Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies provided me with the knowledge and leadership skills necessary to excel as a Green Corps fellow and environmental leader" comments Emily Templin.