On any given day, the 20 interns in NC State\u2019s Campus as a Classroom program might be anywhere on campus\u2009\u2014\u2009measuring the microbial composition of compost piles, researching how to integrate more electric vehicles into the university\u2019s fleet or handing out potted basil plants at a Wolfpack baseball game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Launched in fall 2021, the program matches undergraduate and graduate students with faculty or staff-led sustainability projects. Through their work, interns help make NC State more environmentally friendly while bolstering their professional skills through real-world training and workshops. \u201cThey\u2019re very motivated\u2009. . .\u2009and they\u2019re very passionate about these projects they\u2019re working on,\u201d says Jessica Bast, a coordinator in NC State\u2019s sustainability office who leads the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Claire Henson \u201922, who will receive her master\u2019s degree in textile engineering in May, is in her second year as an intern in the athletics department. Her tasks have included updating the department\u2019s website to highlight its sustainability efforts and developing sustainability activities for every varsity sport\u2009\u2014\u2009from those basil plant giveaways to helping create a video about the favorite outdoor spaces of members of the men\u2019s basketball team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Henson, 22, of Hickory, N.C., hopes to eventually develop sustainable textiles for the sports or outdoors industry. That will require her to lean on the scientific skills she\u2019s learning in the classroom. But convincing people to seek out more environmentally friendly products is important, too. And those are the skills she\u2019s gaining through the internship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
. . .\u2009what really connects with people is finding something that they want to preserve\u2009. . .<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI found that what really connects with people,\u201d she says, \u201cis finding something that they want to preserve and realizing that if they don\u2019t do something about it then they could lose it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n
By Sarah Lindenfeld Hall<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
On any given day, the 20 interns in NC State\u2019s Campus as a Classroom program might be anywhere on campus\u2009\u2014\u2009measuring the microbial composition of compost piles, researching how to integrate more electric vehicles into the university\u2019s fleet or handing out potted basil plants at a Wolfpack baseball game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Launched in fall 2021, the program matches undergraduate and graduate students with faculty or staff-led sustainability projects. Through their work, interns help make NC State more environmentally friendly while bolstering their professional skills through real-world training and workshops. \u201cThey\u2019re very motivated\u2009. . .\u2009and they\u2019re very passionate about these projects they\u2019re working on,\u201d says Jessica Bast, a coordinator in NC State\u2019s sustainability office who leads the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Claire Henson \u201922, who will receive her master\u2019s degree in textile engineering in May, is in her second year as an intern in the athletics department. Her tasks have included updating the department\u2019s website to highlight its sustainability efforts and developing sustainability activities for every varsity sport\u2009\u2014\u2009from those basil plant giveaways to helping create a video about the favorite outdoor spaces of members of the men\u2019s basketball team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Henson, 22, of Hickory, N.C., hopes to eventually develop sustainable textiles for the sports or outdoors industry. That will require her to lean on the scientific skills she\u2019s learning in the classroom. But convincing people to seek out more environmentally friendly products is important, too. And those are the skills she\u2019s gaining through the internship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
. . .\u2009what really connects with people is finding something that they want to preserve\u2009. . .<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI found that what really connects with people,\u201d she says, \u201cis finding something that they want to preserve and realizing that if they don\u2019t do something about it then they could lose it.\u201d<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sustainability efforts on campus get boost from student interns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"Sustainability efforts on campus get boost from student interns.\",\"displayCategoryID\":5,\"caption\":\"\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[195,258,590,1042,1121],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-3014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-campus-as-a-classroom","tag-claire-henson","tag-jessica-bast","tag-sarah-lindenfeld-hall","tag-sustainability"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":5,"name":"Best Bets","slug":"best-bets","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":52,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5004,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3014\/revisions\/5004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3014"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=3014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}