About Bea

Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mtn. National Park

Greetings from Tennessee!

I moved down to Knoxville from New London, NH when I joined CAC Americorps last August.  I was placed in the UT Recycling office where I worked for ten months as Outreach Coordinator, recruiting volunteers for football games (read: the south's other religion), co-managing a team of student workers (the Original Green team... my OGs), developing marketing strategies for campus initiatives, and collaborated with Miss Elly (fellow Americorps member, NoBelle, and co-pilot in life) in the Office of Sustainability to plan events like the Earth Day Celebration and Sustainability Week.  

As the year went on, I began working with student organizations, campus departments and Volunteer Dining to develop and implement Zero Waste practices at the events held at University of Tennessee.  Some of these events were smaller in size, like Board of Trustees meetings (less than 50 people) and the Chancellor's Lunches (about 1,300 people), which made them simple, rewarding victories.  And then... there were events like the Freshman Picnic, my first ZW event.  5 OGs vs. ~5,000 first year students, just to give you an idea of the obstacles we faced.  It was shocking how indifferent the majority of these students were to the concept of recycling and composting.  Despite the fact that literally everything at the picnic was either compostable or recyclable, a remarkable number of students came up to our ZW stations (compost bins and recycling bins, manned by the OGs) to ask where the trashcans were.  A few knuckleheads went out of their way to purposely leave their waste on top of the few permanent trashcans, which we had meticulously covered up.  

And so... the teacher in me saw an opportunity, and I ran with it.  UT Recycling needed to change the way people thought about waste reduction practices.  We needed to teach them that it isn't just something "hippie, liberals" (or Yankees) do to maintain their status quo.  My supervisor, Jay Price, and I decided that if we were going to change peoples' minds about recycling, we should probably start by changing our name.  I will begin my second term of Americorps in a few short weeks, not as the Outreach Coordinator for UT Recycling, but as the Zero Waste Coordinator for UT Zero Waste.  

I am beyond excited about the different responsibilities I will be taking on in my new position.  Introducing our compost services at 5+ new locations on campus, transforming Neyland Stadium (largest stadium in the SEC) into a ZW facility, and coordinating all events hosted by campus departments to be zero waste.  What I'm looking forward to most, however, is that the Central Program Council at UTK has approached me about taking Volapolooza to Zero Waste.  

So what do I plan on doing after my second term down here?  Truthfully, I'm not entirely sure.  Three years ago I would have told you I'd be teaching English to high schoolers by now... and  I certainly haven't written that off as an option.  Now instead of looking for basic English teacher positions, I will hunt for a school that integrates sustainability heavily into their curriculum (or one that is willing to let me develop and implement waste reduction initiatives, while teaching about ZW living).  Until then, I hope to travel around the country as a ZW consultant of sorts, whether that means coordinating volunteers and managing waste streams at music festivals, or being available for hire by individuals or businesses, only time will tell.