Juniors continue to participate in the Certificate Seminar ES 395. Designed to help prepare students for their internships and senior integrative projects, the seminar provides juniors an opportunity to present their proposals to students and faculty. It also offers in-depth discussion of current environmental issues with invited speakers, and the opportunity to share information among students with diverse backgrounds.
Juniors take the additional courses that they have selected to prepare for their internships and projects. Many students study away for one semester so they are encouraged to select a location with courses that will augment their program of studies in the Center. Finally, they submit their internship learning agreements for approval, and prepare to leave for their summer work with a variety of organizations in different states and abroad.
The Goodwin-Niering Center Class of 2028
Hope Bellinger
Environmental Interest: Industrial farming, its climate and social justice impacts and the transition to adaptive farming to create more sustainable food systems.
Tessa Bielak
Environmental Interest: The effects of natural disasters on marginalized communities and the mitigation programs in place to assist with post disaster relief in these communities.
Max Davis
Environmental Interest: Drone, computer vision and AI algorithm usage to conduct an autonomous survey of the college arboretum, classifying and mapping invasive species to develop mitigation proposals to protect the identified species.
Quinn Grant
Environmental Interest: Evaluating the effectiveness of current clean energy policy and incentives with a focus on environmental justice and sustainability.
Maia Kafer
Environmental Interest: Building-Integrated Agriculture in urban areas, its sustainability as a practice, as well as the technical engineering and horticulture design plans that support its success.
Kodi Krog-Ramos
Environmental Interest: Study the success and efficacy of zoo and aquarium educational messaging to inspire/motivate and engage visitors in participatory conservation to determine if they are more than entertainment venues propagating preservationism without action.
Alex Mello
Environmental Interest: The effectiveness of invasive species policy on a local and state level, using the city of New London as a case study.
Kaylee Sanford
Environmental Interest: Green design and systems of sustainable urbanism - their key elements, benefits and the feasibility of incorporating them into new or preexisting urban spaces.
Isabelle Steiner
Environmental Interest: How diet, pollution, stress and environmental factors can alter gene expression through epigenetic changes as well as the possible molecular effects that could be passed across generations and the environmental justice ramifications of these findings.
Lily Sutton
Environmental Interest: Studying the relationship between Connecticut college students, object attachment and intentional severance from the items deemed as trash, culminating in the use of single use plastics as an artistic medium.
Pilar Young
Environmental Interest: Investigate possible correlations between arboretum species and increased mortality rates of those that received a vaccine to protect against the fungus Bd (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidi) bacteria.