allyAl Anoud Baddour

Hello! My name is Al Anoud Baddour; I am a Biological Sciences major with an Education minor. I am passionate about sustainability and am excited to be a part of your journey here at UCI as a Summer Institute for Sustainability Leadership Mentor. I hope together we can have a significant impact on how members of the UCI Community view and integrate sustainability into their everyday lives.

 

audraAudra Bylund

Hello! My name is Audra Bylund and I am proud to be a SISL mentor!  I am originally from a small community in San Diego called Rancho Santa Fe.  In addition, this fall will be my senior year here at UCI and I’ll be graduating with a major in Social Ecology come spring. This will be a bittersweet year.  After taking sustainability courses here at UCI, I’ve come to realize it is difficult for me to pinpoint one issue that is most concerning because once I start to get exposed to more and more, I start to feel more compelled to take action in some way.  However, the one topic I have grown more passionate about is sustainable agriculture.  I believe it is important to take care of your body with the right food, while being conscious about how and where it was produced.  Sustainable food and agriculture also includes farming and land management, which are essential for creating a healthy planet and individuals.  After growing up on a “mini-ranch,” and being exposed to home gardens, I realized how much of a symbiotic relationship we have with the land and animals in terms of providing and managing them in a healthy manner and for future generation use.  If I had to name one activity at UCI that I am proud of it would be participating in research opportunities and helping develop different classes at UCI.  It helped me realize what was involved and the amount of work put in to make them possible.  It let me not only participate in an activity I was interested in, but also made me feel like I was contributing to the school and student life.
 
 

katherineKatherine Chin

My name is Katherine Chin. I am a fourth year Earth and Environmental Science B.S. major, minoring in Global Sustainability and Education. I am absolutely passionate about the environment and have been increasingly interested in becoming more involved with sustainability. I’ve worked as a center attendant for the past two years in Mesa Court Housing (where we will be staying for SISL!) and will be returning to Mesa as an RA next year.  I have worked on habitat restoration in a number of places in Irvine including the beautiful Upper Newport Bay. I have also participated in Alternative Spring Break in which my group volunteered at the Golden Gate National Parks in San Francisco with a focus on environmental issues. Most recently, I have had the privilege to travel to Costa Rica in the Global Sustainability and Cultural Immersion trip with the UCI Costa Rica Program. This was truly a life changing and perspective altering experience. It brought to my attention the richness of sustainable lifestyles and how important it is to live in harmony with the environment. All of these experiences have truly made an impact on my awareness, knowledge, passion towards living a more sustainable lifestyle, and having the desire to share these experiences with others. The sustainability issue that concerns me the most is the lack of awareness or care of this topic. I feel that many things branch out from this issue. In order to make a difference, there must be a source of knowledge and motivation to take action. Without that knowledge or care, there will not be any progression towards sustainability. This is where I believe groups and individuals can make a difference by sharing their own knowledge and making it more relatable to whom they share. This will create better understanding and a motive to learn more and be active in the journey to sustainability.

 

Melissa Lewis

Hi.  I am Melissa Lewis, a Fifth Year Social Ecology major.  I plan on doing my graduate work in Geology or Hydrology. This interest in geology and hydrology stems from my desire to go into indigenous communities and help them develop sustainable practices, specifically regarding water use and food production. I am extensively involved with the American Indian Student Association (AISA) here at UCI. In working with AISA I have had the opportunity to mentor and work in academic preparation programs for Native youth from around the area and at Sherman Indian High School located in Riverside, CA. In the upcoming year, my fellow board members and I plan on expanding AISA’s outreach program. I am a transfer student, which means I bring a perspective of real life experiences to the SISL program, as well as an enthusiasm for sustainability and sustainability projects. I also love to participate in cultural events, reading, dancing, camping and hiking.

 

viviViviana Sanchez

My name is Viviana Sanchez but most people call me Vivi. I’m 19 years old and from Moreno Valley, CA.  I’m excited to say that I am now a 3rd year Civil Engineering major and hoping to start a minor in Global Sustainability. It may seem weird to think that as a Civil Engineering student I get really excited about “go green” attitudes, learning more about environmental issues and finding out the creative ways people can easily help, but I do. I want to use everything I’ve learned in school and share my sustainable mindset with future employers, friends, campus organizations and even my family to get them to make a positive difference in our communities. As a mentor for UCI’s Summer Institute for Sustainability Leadership (SISL) program, I’m looking forward to learning more about how everything affects the health of our planet. However, I am even more excited to guide this year’s SISL participants into becoming passionate and caring UCI freshmen and transfers who want to mold UCI into a truly earth friendly campus!

 

kennyKenny Teeter

Welcome SISL members! I am Kenny Teeter, a 5th year civil engineering major specializing in structural engineering and minoring in global sustainability with some urban studies on the side. I have been involved in sustainability on campus since the fall of 2009 and have taken kind of a side approach to becoming one of the more senior members of the sustainability leadership community here. I started off involved in Students for Sustainability, which now exists as a Facebook page that you should totally join, but then decided drop out of student involvement to focus on my studies and developing my own interests. I spent a LOT of time browsing the web. Then, by a dose of good fortune with credit to the Power Save club, I landed a job with UCI Facilities Management certifying LEED buildings on campus (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – kind of the thing I am most interested in) and decided to jump back into the ring of trying to grow student involvement and connectivity within a field that I care so much about. Now, I am engaged to someone who awesomely cares about sustainability as much as I do (getting married in December), I started a club (Sustainability Cities Club), I am researching natural building methods for my honors thesis, and I am preparing to teach a 1 unit class in the spring. Needless to say, I am pretty excited about the coming year, and I am just as excited about sharing everything thing that I have learned while at UCI to the next group of students about to take over!

 

jaimieJaimie Wan

My name is Jaimie C. Wan and I am excited to be the SISL Project Assistant. I am from sunny SoCal and am currently a 4th year Urban Studies major with a Global Sustainability minor. The sustainability issue I am most concerned about is awareness of sustainability issues and how people respond through decisions/actions. In addition to working with the Global Sustainability Resource Center, I work for The Alliance to Save Energy’s PowerSave Campus program as a Project Coordinator. A few of my projects include Middle Earth’s Water Battle and Mesa Court’s Irrigation Retrofit. I also am the Operations Intern at UCI’s Center for Unconventional Security Affairs (CUSA) where I co-led an art initiative to engage the UCI students and community in the commitment to sustainability.