When students apply for the Honors College, they also have the opportunity to apply to become Sustainability Scholars. The program currently provides 10 students with $2,500 scholarships for up to three years and gives them the opportunity to tackle urban sustainability challenges through group service projects and their senior thesis research.
“I’m really excited about this program’s potential to bring together students with shared interests to work on service projects,” said Olyssa Starry, associate professor of urban ecology and faculty mentor for the program. “These projects map well onto the Honors College’s urban-focused curriculum.”
Sequoia Bellanca, (pictured) a junior in the Honors College, is in her third year as a Sustainability Scholar. She was inspired to apply for the scholarship by a high school experience. She visited a community in Haiti with limited access to clean water as part of a global health program.
“That experience really solidified my interest in sustainability and sustainable solutions,” she said.
But Bellanca, who is pre-med and is majoring in public health studies, didn’t know how she could fit her interest in sustainability into her already packed schedule. The Sustainability Scholars program gave her a structured way to do just that.
In her first two years as a Sustainability Scholar, Bellanca was involved in community volunteering projects and learned research methods in Professor Olyssa Starry’s Urban Ecology course, a required course for all Sustainability Scholars.
This year Bellanca will be surveying Portlanders to see how prepared they are for a big Cascadia earthquake. The results will be presented as part of PSU’s annual Sustainability Celebration.
The Sustainability Scholars are also partnering with Cascadia Clusters, a local nonprofit addressing homelessness by providing employment and living opportunities via the construction of tiny house villages. The students will install solar panels on the tiny houses.
As Bellanca looks to the future and works to pursue a career in medicine, she plans to keep her interest in sustainability front and center.
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