Finding Hope as a Sustainability Intern
May 31, 2024
Open gallery
Johnny Bayne
Major: Playwriting and Screenwriting
Class of 2026
This spring I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Allyson Jackson and a variety of environmentally engaged students as a Sustainability Intern. As a Screenwriting and Playwriting major, I wasn’t quite sure how I would fit in or what exactly I had to offer, but I was excited to work with other students to inspire more campus engagement with nature.
Although I planned a relatively successful Trash Pick-up for Earth Day with the rallying help of the Outdoors Club and NYPIRG, my favorite moments were spent at the SAOC meetings. I found it exciting to see staff and students come together to discuss sustainability issues on campus. Watching the meetings unfurl with more problems and ideas for solutions at every turn was incredibly exciting and made me feel proud to be working with such passionate people.
As the first cohort of sustainability interns, I loved being able to work with Dr. Allyson Jackson to find what about our goals as a team were achievable and how we could adapt our projects to be more realistic. This process taught me a lot about how to develop a project, finding the people and resources you need to make it happen, and finding flexibility in the things you do not expect. Through working with Dr. Allyson Jackson and SAOC, I accquired a sense of hope about the future of sustainability at Purchase– something I might not have discovered had I not applied to the Sustainability Internship.