Thank You For Supporting Us!

The UCI Costa Rica Program thanks our supporters for attending our Winter Bake Sale and Gina’s Pizza Fundraiser!  We could not embark on this journey without all of your support and consideration.

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Winter Sustainability Panel

Throughout the past eight weeks, the Costa Rica Program participants have been learning about intercultural communication, global leadership, Costa Rican culture, and most recently, UC Irvine’s very own sustainability programs and projects happening all around us!

Winter Sustainability Panelists

During Week 7, a panelist of UCI staff and student leaders joined our class to discuss the ways in which students can get involved in sustainability programming and how their work impacts our daily lives.  Richard Demerjian, Abby Reyes, Anne Krieghoff, Jaimie Wan, and Nikki Larson talked about how they got involved in the field of environmental sustainability, but more specifically, ways in which students can make significant changes to our campus community through sustainability efforts.

Richard Demerjian works in UCI’s Office of Environmental Planning and Sustainability.  His work with the university’s Green and Gold Plan manages existing campus landscaping projects and grounds maintenance to make them more sustainable.

Abby Reyes is the director of the UCI Sustainability Initiative and engages with students through research opportunities and sustainability scholarships.  In the panel, she told our students about the Flood RISE project, which will allow students to conduct research that indicates what makes a flood-resilient community.

Anne Krieghoff, UCI’s Recycle and Refuse Manager, shared her insights about food waste and the university’s recycling program.  She also talked about UCI’s involvement in Recyclemania, an eight-week competition between campuses to see which university has the best recycling program.

Jaimie Wan and Nikki Larson lead student-run campus programs through UCI PowerSave Campus Program and The Green Initiative Fund, respectively.  PowerSave is an energy efficiency training and education program for students.  They conduct outreach work and educate the student population about how energy efficiency can also save money.  The Green Initiate Fund empowers students to make their own programs and research efforts more environmentally friendly.  They fund student-proposed projects that revolve around three aspects of sustainability: economy, ethics, and the environment.

Costa Rica Program students participate in a panel about sustainability

The Costa Rica Program thanks them for their time and commitment to building student leaders that are conscientious about the environmental issues our generation currently face.