Sarah Lumnah

Charles River Watershed Association, Waltham, Massachusetts

The Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA) was formed in 1965 in response to public concern about the declining condition of the Charles. Since its earliest days of advocacy, CRWA has figured prominently in major clean-up and watershed protection efforts, working with government officials and citizen groups from 35 Massachusetts watershed towns from Hopkinton to Boston. Initiatives over the last three decades have dramatically improved the quality of water in the watershed and approaches to water resource management. CRWA focuses on developing a sound, science-based understanding of interactions in the watershed; defining long-term, cutting-edge solutions to watershed problems; promoting sustainable watershed management practices with government agencies and private entities; and advocating protection, revitalization, and expansion of public parklands along the Charles.
My main responsibilities at CRWA included tasks such as laboratory analysis, data tabulation, assistance with mailings, volunteer coordination, Web site maintenance, sample bottle washing and delivery and membership management. I spent much of my time creating new Web pages and updating the CRWA Web site. To help CRWA increase their communication with the press, I developed a media list and a press kit. To create the media list I had to learn how to use Microsoft Access, and then create a new database with up-to-date contact information from the surrounding media outlets. In the press kit, I included copies of current newspaper and magazine articles highlighting CRWA’s work, updated biographies of CRWA staff and their contact information, a brief description of the organization, an explanation of watersheds and a list of the board of directors. All of this information is now available to be used by reporters who would like to write about CRWA, but are not entirely familiar with the organization. To create this kit, I contacted numerous environmental nonprofit organizations and requested copies of their press kits to be used as models for CRWA’s.
I also served as CRWA’s Membership Manager for six weeks while their current manager was on vacation. For this position, I processed membership donations, updated membership data tables and sent correspondence to donors. Yet, my favorite task at CRWA was updating their Web site. In order to promote a book about the Charles River, I wrote a review, scanned pictures of the text, highlighted some excerpts, and added the book to CRWA’s PayPal account.
Overall, my experience at CRWA gave me a basic understanding of how a non-profit environmental organization functions. I gained substantial experience with membership management and Web site maintenance, both of which are essential components of a successful non-profit organization. One highly valuable aspect of my internship was simply the discovery of how quickly I am able to become comfortable using new computer programs. Before this summer, I never would have guessed that I would be updating Web sites and creating Microsoft Access queries.
My internship was also an important learning experience because I was able to see how difficult it can be to work for an under-funded nonprofit. This summer every employee was forced to take a six-week furlough (basically an unpaid vacation) because of the organization’s major funding shortages. Such problems are commonplace in many environmental nonprofits, and it was eye opening for me to see firsthand how such funding shortages affect employees. Before I decide to continue to work in the nonprofit sector I will have to decide if I am willing to subject myself to the possibility of such financial instability.
One of my main objectives for selecting CRWA as my employer this summer was that I believed that I would be able to contribute to one of their newsletters. Unfortunately, because of unplanned for financial cutbacks, the newsletter was put on hold while CRWA’s employees focused their collective energies on more pressing issues, such as current environmental lawsuits and the monthly monitoring of the Charles River. Therefore, when their Membership Manager was forced to take a six-week furlough, I was asked to undertake the dual roles of public relations assistant and membership manager instead of my original plan to serve as a reporting or editing assistant. I would have preferred to write for their newsletter, but I still enjoyed editing and creating new Web pages for their Web site. To my surprise, I found Web site design to be an interesting outlet for my creativity and writing ability.
My internship opened up many different modes of thinking about environmental change and sustainability, and I believe that these ideas will be useful to me when I begin my Senior Integrative Project (SIP). I recently spoke with Professor Rivkin about the possibility of focusing my SIP on the subject of sustainability. To incorporate my English major into my SIP, I would like to read literary works by Thoreau and Silko and apply their views of sustainability to the Connecticut College campus. This semester I will continue to research more environmental authors, and, through meetings with the director of Physical Plant and the Sustainability Director, Matt Turcotte, begin mapping out Conn’s environmental sustainability.