Sustainability Service Corps

This week we are highlighting Sofia So, Sustainability and Equity Fellow with the Oakland Unified School District, for #fellowhighlighttuesday. Check out Sofia's story below! "As the Sustainability and Equity Fellow, I've been working with the Facilities team to develop a sustainability policy for OUSD that will eventually become an implementation plan. I've done a fair share of community outreach and research on various other school district policies and plans to improve our own. Currently, the policy is in its final stages and as such, I have been reaching out to other school districts and cities to discuss their own work and using any advice they have on our policy. So far, we have reached out to 10 different districts and cities combined to learn their best practices and are now making edits to the policy using this information. We've also presented this information to the board and community. I have also presented to Oakland Tech AP Environmental Science students about different ways to measure sustainability at their school sites and resources for other, more professional metrics that facility staff use. This was one of my first times interacting with students, and it was a great experience seeing how curious they were about sustainability. A few months later, I reworked this presentation for a Climate Literacy Conference Workshop Presentation, where I collaborated and discussed green building practices with representatives from other school districts.  Another large project I have worked on is the creation of a Sustainability Survey, which asks the OUSD community for their priorities on sustainability-related initiatives within the district, identifying the community's biggest concerns. This survey will be posted on the new OUSD Sustainability website, which I assisted rewriting content and researching past projects for. Overall, my time at OUSD has been a great learning process to see how OUSD works towards a greener future. I unfortunately don't have any photos due to the fact I work remotely, but I do have some screenshots of presentations we have worked on!" #americorps #californiavolunteers #sscfellowship #bayareacommunityresources

This week we are highlighting Kaili Hutchins, Transportation Equity and Safe Routes to School Fellow at the San Mateo County Office of Education, for #fellowhighlightfriday. Check out Kaili's story below! "Nothing excites me more than coming to work in this fellowship every day! Not only do I have the privilege of working with a diverse group of people in the office, but I also get to step into classrooms and communities to partake in a range of projects. In past months, we held several events, including the Golden Sneaker Contest, Crossing Guard Appreciation Week, Earth Day, and walk audits with participating schools. More recently, we have been preparing for an exciting new year. Because of the Summer Olympics in Paris, my Safe Routes to School team decided we would make that the theme for back to school this year. We also developed a new International Walk to School Day idea. Without giving too much away, it is a magical quest opportunity with traffic safety measures to be checked off while students map their way to their final treasure. A lot of time and effort goes into this because our team plans, develops the posters, organizes the event with schools, and has to order prizes. We also are in the final planning stages of our Celebration of Farmworkers event happening on the coast side on August 9th. We will have fun, games, food, and many sponsors from the community tabling. I also had the honor and privilege of collaborating with Julie Hilborn from SMCOE's Environmental Literacy and Sustainability Initiative. I assisted Julie in preparing for a teacher fellowship and helped refine a curriculum for Pre-K to 12. Since I want to become a teacher, this was a fun and inspiring challenge for me and I am grateful to have been included. These various events seek to serve our collective mission, which provides traffic safety as well as health and climate resources. We work with a wide amount of collaborators to address the needs and concerns of community members." #americorps #californiavolunteers #sscfellowship #climatejobs #sustainability #bayareacommunityresources

This week we are highlighting Julia Hansen, Environment, Food, and Garden Educator with the Oakland Unified School District, for #fellowhighlighttuesday. Check out Julia's story below! "Hi! My name is Julia Hansen and I am an Environment, Food, and Garden Educator at The Center which is part of the Oakland Unified School District. As an educator here I work with 3rd graders, 6th graders and Oakland high school students who visit this educational farm for field trips! I craft lesson plans to implement into these visits, all of which are oriented around the environment, gaining culinary skills, and art/wellness activities in garden spaces. One of my favorite lessons was making Valentine’s Day leaf print cards for students to take home. We learned about the anatomy of leaves and then painted and printed these leaves onto folded paper with messages inside. It was a fun way to incorporate the garden into an art/science lesson that was centered around spreading love! I have really loved learning more of what it means to be a garden educator and feel really thankful for the team that I work with. During the next few months I am looking forward to planning and planting a medicinal garden bed that will be used for making balms and oils that we'll hand out at our summer market with high school interns. With this I will be able to develop my passion for regenerative gardening while learning more about herbalism!" #americorps #californiavolunteers #sscfellowship #climatejobs #sustainability #bayareacommunityresources

This week we are highlighting Alyssa Pfitzer Price, Conservation Education Fellow at The Marine Mammal Center, for #fellowhighlighttuesday. Check out Alyssa's story below! "Hello! I am a Conservation Education Fellow at The Marine Mammal Center. In this fellowship, I have worked with the Center at Pier 39 and the main hospital in the Marin Headlands. At Pier 39, my team educated the visiting public on marine mammals, especially the California sea lion's natural history associated with the Pier. I created educational resources on this species - our most common patient - including a directory of patients rescued from Pier 39 with any variety of ailments. I collected data on the docked sea lions to check on their health, determine their age class/sex, and tracked abundance in different seasons. At the main hospital in the Marin Headlands, I have assisted volunteer trainings and daily support alongside general public programs. Onsite, I lead tours, organize our specimen collection, and constantly seek more ways for visitors to get involved in ocean science. I also am creating surveys to audit the acquisition of marine science knowledge and behavior change after visiting the Center, making sure our community feels empowered to turn what they learn into action at home. Offsite, I attend fairs and events to educate our Bay Area community on the connections between marine mammals, the ocean, and us!" #americorps #californiavolunteers #sscfellowship #climatejobs #sustainability #bayareacommunityresources

This week we are highlighting Naomi de la Torre, Ecological Restoration Fellow with the Presidio Trust, for #fellowhighlighttuesday Check out Naomi's story below! "As an ecological restoration fellow at the Presidio Trust, I spend most of my time outdoors removing invasive species, planting native plants, maintaining restoration sites from re-invasion, and holding volunteer events at different sites around The Presidio. On Saturdays after our volunteer program I go to the Field Station and set up an earth science table for children or interact with educational material I gather. I am a “resident biologist” at the field station, and folks can ask me questions about geology in my question box. " #americorps #californiavolunteers #sscfellowship #climatejobs #sustainability #bayareacommunityresources

This week we are highlighting Naditza Camacho, Food Recovery & Reusables Specialist at Oakland Unified School District, for #FellowHighlightWednesday. Check out Naditza's story below! "I'm working as the Food Recovery & Reusables Specialist at Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). My main project is working on establishing a food donation program for OUSD to comply with SB1383 regulations. This has involved a lot of researching, creating new materials, and planning logistics. I'm excited to announce we have officially partnered up with two food recovery organizations to help facilitate these donations for the upcoming school year! Not only will this partnership help provide meals to our community, but it will also help reduce methane emissions that get produced when organic materials end up in landfills. The rest of my time is spent helping out the larger Waste Prevention team with creating and updating material, school site visits, ad hoc projects such as planning our 2024 Earth Month Art Contest, and occasionally dressing up as a giant earthworm called Wiggle E for our elementary school assemblies!" #americorps #californiavolunteers #sscfellowship #climatejobs #sustainability #bayareacommunityresources

This week we are highlighting Izzi Volonte, Energy Education and Engagement Fellow with The Energy Coalition, for #fellowhighlightfriday. Check out Izzi's story below! "I am an Energy Education and Engagement Fellow at The Energy Coalition (TEC) alongside Garrett, Leslie, and Isabel (special shout out to the data fellows Sophia and Kara!). We work together on four main project areas: the high school internship program, Junior Energy Manager Certification, social media and newsletter, and in-person events across California. We supervise around seven interns each per cohort and ensure they complete ten milestones, covering energy and water auditing, ArcGIS story mapping, and lessons in environmental justice. By the end of the fellowship, the goal is that we will have supervised 100 interns in total, offering them early career experience in the STEM field. The Junior Energy Manager Certification is a new offering that can be implemented in formal or informal instruction. 6th-12th grade students complete a campus-wide energy and water audit and use those findings to create a campus-wide action plan promoting energy-saving practices across the school. So far, we have reached out to educators and marketed it as a supplemental offering to water, air, or renewable energy lessons for the next school year. The four of us split up social media and newsletter outreach, creating posts and content for the communications and marketing team at the beginning of each month. Lastly, we each cover in-person events across our program areas. As the San Diego Fellow, I work closely with the San Diego Unified School District and the Girl Scouts of San Diego, conducting Lab Days in schools or community centers and facilitating tabling events for students and educators. I have loved working at TEC, especially with the other Fellows, and I look forward to the rest of the fellowship!"

This week we are highlighting Noah Evans, Food Systems Educator with Each Green Corner @eachgreencorner, for #fellowhighlighttuesday. Check out Noah's story below! "I am a Food Systems Educator for Each Green Corner. My role is to manage outdoor education spaces at school campuses throughout the San Mateo School District and lead students in garden activities within those spaces. In my role, I manage green spaces on six different campuses. I grow produce in these green spaces to be donated to the local food bank Samaritan House. I also oversee garden recess times and student Green Team meetings. A major project I am taking on is the installation of an orchard and dedicated garden space on the Mariposa Upper Elementary and Tierra Linda Middle campus. This campus currently only has a few planter boxes throughout the space, and it has the space to accommodate significantly more than what is currently there. The orchard will consist of forty fruit trees in total in five different varieties. Additionally, the understory of this orchard will consist of different native flowers between the walkways in order to attract pollinators and beneficial insects. Once this project is completed, it will significantly increase the donation capacity of this site. By the end of my service term, I am excited to see the results of our infrastructural improvements at each of my sites. My goal is to maximize the productive capacity of each of the sites while requiring the least amount of continual input in order to create a system that will be sustained well past my service term. This includes more efficient irrigation systems, increased green space, and wildlife habitat improvements. I look forward to seeing the results of these improvements and their impacts on my organization’s service capacity."

This week we are highlighting Emily Gueco, Equity and Climate Fellow at Rising Sun Center for Opportunity, for #fellowhighlightfriday. Check out Emily's story below! "As part of the Climate Careers team, I conduct outreach to historically underserved communities to connect them with our no-cost energy efficiency services. Rising Sun employs local youth to install energy and water-saving devices such as LED light bulbs and efficient-flow shower heads in resident’s homes. To promote our program, I partner with community-based organizations and government agencies and attend food distributions, festivals, and farmer’s markets. It’s exciting to be able to direct where we conduct outreach and support communities that need our services the most. One remarkable thing about the program is that you only have to be a PG&E customer to qualify. It’s rare to have an energy efficiency program that has so few barriers to participating and also supports local youth workforce development. The impact of the measures that we offer may seem small, but as I’ve calculated the cumulative savings across the households we’ve served, I see that they add up to make a huge difference. In the coming months, I’m looking forward to working with our new fellows Liam and Maria, supporting the youth participants as they’re onboarded, and booking appointments with the residents I’m connecting with now. I’m really happy to be in a role where I’m helping provide youth and residents with opportunities to make a positive impact in their own communities!" #americorps #californiavolunteers #sscfellowship #climatejobs #sustainability #bayareacommunityresources

Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19th, marks the day in 1865 when enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their freedom—over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. This day is a powerful reminder of the struggle for freedom and equality, celebrating African American culture, history, and resilience. Let's honor the past and continue to work towards a future of justice and equality. #Juneteenth #FreedomDay #CelebrateFreedom