Who are we?
Ryan Walker is a
fourth year student of landscape architecture at Penn State University. There,
he has worked on designs spanning community layout and design, watershed
analysis, the design of a greenway, and courtyard and park designs in the
university design studios. While studying landscape architecture, he has
received a scholarship award for his studies and an award for the Excellence in
the Study of Landscape Architecture given to the top students of each class
every year by the Department of Landscape architecture. He is also
pursuing a minor in geography at Penn State to supplement his degree in
landscape architecture.
Along with his work
in the landscape architecture studios, Ryan Walker is a student ally of New Leaf Initiative, a non-profit company focused on the application of sustainable
practices spread across multiple disciplines. Here, he has worked on a
green wall project for the town of State College, PA as well as researching and
developing solutions for a potential project in Haiti that looked at helping
the country manage the changes it faced after the earthquake struck the
country. Ryan has applied his study of landscape architecture in
the professional setting at a residential landscape architecture company and a
design firm that works on the environmental restoration of floodplains,
streams, and waterways in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
* * *
Gabrielle Reese is from
Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, a suburb just outside of Scranton. She is going to
be a second year Energy Engineering student at Penn State University Park. In
addition, she recently enrolled in one of Penn State's new Sustainability Leadership minor. That is how came across the Jamaica Sustainability study abroad
Program.
Outside of school, she actively practices yoga and loves to spend her
time outdoors. An environmentalist from the start, Gabrielle's focus has been
on environmental and community based issues. Her first initiative was working
with an environmental group in her high school. She then began volunteering
almost full-time with the Sierra Student Coalition, a completely youth-run
environmental organization. This included both working on committees within the
organization, as well as planning and executing an eight day long camp with a
cohesive team of trainers. Since attending Penn State, she has joined
Eco-Action, the oldest environmental-political based action group on campus. She also was an Eco Rep, a group of freshmen students
working to promote sustainability within the freshmen dorms. Beginning
to learn about sustainability from a university perspective has given her the
opportunity to begin studying sustainability concepts in a systematic and concrete
way. Her goal is to focus on sustainability at a local level, working to
strengthen communities. She believes that localization in all aspects and a
strong community are essential to create a sustainable world. To contact
Gabrielle send her an email at ger5048@psu.edu.
* * *
Ryan Brown is a
senior at The Pennsylvania State University, majoring in Integrative Arts w/ a
focus in Architecture and Sustainable Design. He is the current President of
the Penn State Student Black Caucus (Facebook page here) and a proud brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., along with many other campus affiliations.
Throughout his time
at the university, Ryan has received a multitude of University honors for his
service to the community and aiding students in fighting against social and
civil injustices. He has recently received an inaugural Way Paver’s Award, the
Medgar Evers Social Activism Award, and a variety of Community Service Awards.
He is tearing down barrier after barrier each and everyday as he is a First
generation college student and is doing as his award has stated, paving the
way, for all those that will soon follow.
Ryan believes that
all of the awards and recognition that he has received has aided him in reaching his goals and aligning him with the
proper path in which is feels he is destined to take. Having learned many
lessons through his activities, Ryan is strongly encouraging his peers to be
responsible GLOBAL citizens and aid in protecting the earth no matter where we
are located.
Ryan is seeking to
further his education in sustainable design and sustainability as a whole.
Through the program he seeks to gain further knowledge on the topic of
sustainability and the ways in which he can aid in protecting the environment.
With the many lessons learned from this summer aboard and aid his friends and
family in protecting the globe.
* * *
Melissa Peterson is a
rising junior at the Pennsylvania State University. An
alumna of the Semester at Sea program and the Cape Town Parks and People study abroad, she enjoys
traveling. Melissa is an aspiring geographer majoring in
Physical/Environmental
Science and Geographic Information Systems. From EMS Student Council and EMS
THON to the geography and geoscience clubs, she is an active member of the
College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Her other academic interests include
climatology, African studies, and sustainability.
When Melissa is not
participating in school-related functions or working, she enjoys reading
classic novels and going on adventures. She likes to work with her hands on
various creative projects such as drawing, painting, sculpting, and bead
working. She has an interest in fashion, which particularly manifests in her
love of shoes. She will always make time for a Phillies game or a Penn State
football or volleyball games. When exploring a new city, Melissa is most likely
to seek out a museum and a street cafe to get acquainted with her new
surroundings. Earth sciences are not only her academic interest but a hobby as
well. She loves atmospheric and earth sciences, and particularly relishes a
good cloud formation. Interests in cartography, geoscience, and atmospherics
drive her at school and in her personal learning. She is particularly
interested in the interactions between humans and the earth, in terms of
resource use. Melissa’s life goal is to somehow make a marked positive
difference in the world, however that may manifest in her future.
Melissa’s picture was
taken in Mkambathi Nature Reserve in South Africa during her participation in
the Parks and People program.
* * *
Dr. Neil Brown holds
a split appointment with the Alliance for Education, Science, Engineering, and
Development in Africa (AESEDA), and the Penn State Center for Sustainability.
His research interests include sustainable systems and international education
in developing countries with particular interest in agricultural
sustainability.
In addition to his
research, Dr. Brown directs and assists in developing Penn State international
engagement initiatives that link researchers, students and stakeholders in the
co-generation of knowledge. These initiatives occur in areas where critical
human-environmental systems are coupled with unique or fascinating
consequences. His current projects are focused in Jamaica and the Eastern Cape
Province of South Africa. Both programs focus on sustainable development,
environmental conservation and biodiversity and include a semester long study abroad
program.
Dr. Brown is the
primary instructor for two of our courses this summer, “A Ship in a Bottle” and
“Sustainable Jamaica.”
* * *
Peter Buckland grew up around State College, Pennsylvania. He considers himself a boy of the woods, having an abiding love of the mountain gap streams, rhododendron, hemlocks, mountain laurel, and the great diversity of fauna thriving in the Rothrock just a few hundred feet from his house. Since his teens, he has expressed himself through music, fiction, essays, and articles including three years on the radio co-hosting Sustainability Now Radio on the Lion FM 90.7.
Currently, Peter is completing his Ph.D. in Penn State’s Educational Theory and Policy program where he focuses on sustainability, ethics, and policy. He co-founded Environment-Ecology-Education in the College of Education (3E-COE), who won the 2010 Outstanding Student Group Award. Peter’s teaching on education and sustainability earned him the Laurel Haven Conservation Award and the Harold F. Martin Teaching Award. In fall 2011 he worked with Groundswell to successfully pass an Environmental Bill of Rights and Hydraulic Fracturing Ban in State College by referendum. This kind of engaged work for sustainability and democracy earned him both a fellowship in Penn State’s Capacity to Foster Democracy program and one of the first Student Sustainability Leadership Awards for which Penn State planted a tree in his name.
Peter is the recently hired Director of Sustainability for the Kiski School, a boy’s prep school founded in 1888 teaching grades 9-12. There, he will teach for ecological literacy, develop a small farm, work on energy, conservation and waste projects, and collaborate people for a culture for sustainability.
Peter is the editor of this blog and the instructor for one of the Lions in Jamaica courses, “Managing Planet Earth.” Peter’s picture was taken on the bridge at the end of No Name Trail in the Rothrock State Forest in Pennsylvania.
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