Green Team
Mara
Experience Information
Employer: GVSU Campus Dining
Job Title: Green Team Intern
Major: Communications
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
The GVSU Campus Dining Green Team is a sustainability initiative that focuses on proper waste disposal and waste diversion. The Green Team has two primary responsibilities, the first being monthly audits, which determine the accuracy of the compost and landfill disposal at various dining locations at Grand Valley. The second is waste bin monitoring at dining locations, wherein volunteers educate the GVSU community on proper waste disposal. The Green Team is made up of the advisor, intern, and volunteers, approximating roughly twenty-five people.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
While working for the Green team, I worked for Campus Dining Marketing, creating sustainability guides, plans, social media posts, infographics and revamping their website. During the Fall semester, I conducted four audits for the Green Team at four dining locations (numbering sixteen audits in total). I completed and published a final Green Team report based on those audits from the 2016-2017 academic year, outlining the data that has been collected throughout the year. This report includes maps, audit analyses, recorded data and recommendations for each dining location. I worked to recruit Green Team volunteers, ultimately doubling the members from last year, and promoted the Green Team through the GVSU food social media platforms. In addition to this, I trained volunteers in bin monitoring, audit procedures, and waste sorting, created bin monitoring schedules for volunteers, and led two Zero-Waste football games.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
Working with Campus Dining Marketing taught me important research and networking skills, as much of the work for that department required me to reach out to different companies and organizations in order to retrieve very specific information. To create the social media visuals, I used the online site Canva, which was new to me. I had to learn how to mix color schemes, fonts, and graphics, and learn some illustrative skills to create unique social media infographics. This internship has taught me independence, leadership, and so many other useful and applicable skills that I can apply to my career when I graduate.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part of this internship experience was working with the students I recruited. Those students are hardworking, reliable, and passionate people, and they were very inspiring to me. They helped me grow as a leader, and were always constructive and helpful.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
This experience has helped me understand the kind of leader I am capable of being, and helped me to realize what kind of workplace and leadership I want from my management in the future. This internship has forced me to work very independently, and I now feel far more comfortable taking on a job that requires a lot of independence. I hope to be working in a private company or a small sustainable business, and the experience with the Grand Valley students and community helped me realize that.