Legambiente, Lombardia , Italy

Legambiente (League for the Environment), an Italian environmental non-governmental organization (NGO), facilitated my internship experience this summer. One of the most well-known environmental organizations in Italy , Legambiente's environmental aims extend to essentially all areas of environmental protection, all connected by the same central theme, “Pensare globalmente, agire localmente: Un mondo diverso è possible,” Think globally, act locally: A different world is possible.

I worked with Legambiente in two extremely different projects. The first was a nature camp for children. This took place at Campsirago, a tiny, 20-person village on a hill in the Colle Brianza region of Lombardia. While the camp had running water and electricity, the nearest phone was an hour away on foot. Due to the remote location, the activities focused mainly on nature in the surrounding area. The children, ages 7-11, were from the Lombardia region and nature enthusiasts. We took the children on short hikes in which we identified plant species and animal tracks based on footprints, scat, sounds, partially-eaten vegetation and markings on trees. Since everything was conducted in Italian, most of this vocabulary was unfamiliar to me. However, my language skills had advanced such that, by this point, I was able to follow along, perform all necessary tasks, and learn a great deal while assisting the children in finding and identifying parts of nature.

Some other activities included using leaves, rocks, and other parts of nature to create art (Andy Goldsworthy-style); learning about energy and brainstorming ways to conserve it; and one day dedicated to making and baking bread using an old wood stove in an abandoned house. Furthermore, there was an organic garden that needed to be watered each morning with water from the communal fountain, and tomato plants that needed planting and staking with large sticks from the woods.

Other than overseeing each activity, my responsibilities were largely focused on keeping the camp running smoothly: for instance, ensuring that three meals were prepared each day and subsequently cleaned up. I was responsible for keeping everyone together and assisting in each task from tying shoes to pitching tents to reassuring the kids that no, there were not ghosts or dead campers lurking in the woods.

The second project I worked on truly incorporated the “think globally act locally” theme. I was responsible for an international work camp in the city of Lecco on Lake Como . Working with one of the other adults from Campsirago, we organized a project with fourteen people between the ages of 18 and 28 from countries all over the world including Turkey, South Korea, France, Belgium, Latvia, and Germany. The project entailed improving the river system of the city. We pulled plants from the banks of rivers that were infringing on the concrete which kept the city separate from the river; removed plants in another specific area in order to allow for erosion and to prevent flooding (which had been a problem in the fall); worked on a few small beach clean-ups; and one afternoon we removed car batteries from another river and properly disposed of them.

My responsibilities centered on organizing daily activities: transportation to and from the work site; daily food orders; collaboration with city officials and city volunteers; and general control of the other volunteers. It forced me to become a more authoritative leader since the fourteen other people relied on my guidance for their experience.

I entered my affiliation with Legambiente with the main objective of learning how environmental activism is employed in other parts of the world and seeing if I could become completely immersed in a volunteer project abroad. I was truly dedicated to absorbing environmentalism from an Italian perspective. In this end, the children's camp was extremely useful in that I was able help inspire an excitement for nature and the outdoors in children, as well as learn about the local environment myself. The international work camp was also inspiring in that, despite the fact that the work was physically challenging and relatively unimportant on a global scale, it was carried out with a passion and excitement that I could never have foreseen. It was here that I truly understood the phrase “think globally, act locally.” In this sense, my original objectives were met and surpassed through my internship with Legambiente.

As a learning experience, my internship was effective. I accomplished what I had originally hoped to accomplish in the sense of leading successful camps in a foreign environment; however, it also taught me that this type of work is not what I am looking for in a career. While it was fun for a summer, it was intellectually unchallenging and even monotonous once the initial novelty and charm had worn off. I felt environmentally ineffective because my personal talents and skills were not utilized. It seemed that anyone in my position could have accomplished what I accomplished. For a long-term job, I will need something more demanding. For these reasons, I have decided that my senior project will focus more on the political side of international environmentalism.

For my senior project I will be working with Jane Dawson to explore the political side of environmentalism in Italy . Italy has had a Green Party for a long time, yet it has not been effective. I will research why it has remained in existence for so long yet accomplished basically nothing, and I will investigate the influence of NGOs in the political scene. I would like to see how environmental philosophies are tied in and what, if any, theories can be applied to Italian environmental politics.