Office of Academic Multicultural
Initiatives; engineering graduate
student
Chris
Boyd;
public

health graduate student Micalah
Webster;
and
Public
Policy

graduate student Angelica De
Jesus.

Business sophomore Shartia

Ducksworth said she enjoyed
the event, and listening to the
panelists made her realize she
should have started applying for
internships earlier. She also noted
the diversity of the attendees,
especially in regard to the usual
makeup of such events.

“I
wish
that
applying
to

internships was something I
started as a freshman,” she said.
“I definitely liked how diverse it
was. That’s not always the case
when you come to events like
these.”

Public Policy senior Gloriela

Iguina-Colón,
undergraduate

co-chair of Students of Color in
Public Policy and one of the event’s
organizers,
said
she
believes

students of color on campus need a
better support network in terms of
applying for jobs and internships.

“We saw a really big need for a

support system and network for
students of color in a professional
development school,” she said.
“I had several experiences with

different events that are really
engaging, but didn’t make the
connections with people and
couldn’t help me professionally.
So I reached out to Ayana, who
has been a mentor to me, so Dana
and I have been collaborating in
planning this panel.”

After securing an internship

with
The
Hill,
Iguina-Colón

explained how she personally
struggled
with
creating

connections because her identity
was different from that of anyone
else in the office. However, this
experience inspired her to return
to Ann Arbor and work to create a
network for others going through
the same experience.

“No one looked like me in the

office so creating those bonds was
difficult,” she said. “I felt like that
wasn’t supported in any way and I
felt like it was the first time I was
supposed to have to search for a
professional network and support
system. When I came back I felt
like it was super important that
people know we will help them
get to The Hill, but they have to
put in work when they get the
internship. It’s not just about what
you can add to the internship
though –– it’s about what you
can add to yourself and your
experiences. I feel really happy,
and Dana has been amazing
through this whole process.”

Rackham
student
Dayna

Asante-Appiah, an intern at the

Alumni Scholars program and
another event organizers, said her
personal experiences navigating
the
workplace
have
heavily

influenced her in choosing to work
in the field of career counseling.

“As a woman of color myself,

and as a grad student who desires
to work with students in the
future, I think it’s important to be
able to help students communicate
and
navigate
through
these

spaces, even though it’s been
their experience their whole life.
Sometimes coming to college and
being one of the only persons
of color is a new experience, so
I have a real passion for career
counseling and have an internship
at the career center too,” she said.

Asante-Appiah
also

emphasized
the
importance

of
helping
students
realize

the intrinsic value of their
identities, while simultaneously
understanding the unfair, but
realistic, barriers existing in the
workplace due to said identities.

“I think being able to have

these
conversations
with

students is important so we
don’t ignore different aspects
of our identity –– visible or
otherwise – and feel confident
about what they bring to the table
professional,” she said. “But also
I want them to know the reality
that not everyone is going to
understand or look like you and
see the value of what you bring.”

of the program in allowing
students to take control of
their own ideas and to work
toward
gaining
productive

support
from
those
in

positions of power.

“Not enough of us know

what it means for our public
servants to fight for us. Not
enough of us know what it
means to feel like we have
our own fate and our own
wellbeing in our own hands.
And few, if any of us, know
what it means to see the
impact of our representatives
investing in our ideas. That
has to change. And that’s why
we built Innovate,” Sarkar
said.

One of the kickoff event’s

speakers was Suneel Gupta,
vice
president
of
product

development for Groupon and
CEO of Rise, a company that
works to make healthcare more
affordable through the use of
technology. He explained to
the room his own perspectives
on how to become a successful
entrepreneur,
specifically

through his “Four Chords for
Founder Mindset.”

Potential
Innovate

participants also listened as
Gupta gave specific tips and

strategies for working through
failures and fears. He spoke
of his own experiences with
writing ideas and anxieties
down on paper, for example,
and
encouraged
students

to
take
similar
measures

to
improve
their
own

productivity.

“When
you
pull
things

out, when you actually start
putting it down on paper, you
start to realize that the things
we fear the most are often
the same things that are least
likely to happen,” Gupta said.

University
students
also

joined the lineup of speakers,
with Engineering sophomore
Keiana Cavé and LSA senior
Brendan
Genaw
giving

presentations.

Cavé, who was named one

of Forbes’ 30 under 30 in 2017,
discussed her own research
experiences,
including
the

time she spent a month month
she spent researching for the
Smithsonian
on
an
island

in Panama. She encouraged
student attendees to persevere
throughout their journeys, and
to recognize that processes are
often much more important
than the outcomes.

“People
always
see
the

end
result,
and
especially

for all of us students, people
see whatever we list on our
résumé, but they don’t really

see how we got there, and
they don’t know our stories
necessarily,” Cavé said.

Genaw, who currently serves

as the president of optiMize,
an on-campus social impact
based
entrepreneurship

community, expressed similar
sentiments as he explained
the importance in remaining
optimistic and willing to take
risks.

“A
lot
of
the
amazing

entrepreneurs I’ve met are
people that decide to tell
themselves
yes,”
Genaw

said. “And when you get a
community…
that’s
always

going to be telling you yes,
it makes you willing to try
things that you might not have
been able to try.”

LSA
freshman
Miriam

Chung attended the event and
said the speakers motivated
her to take on a project
through Innovate, to work
toward her own goals and
gain worthwhile experience
throughout the process.

“I’m definitely not the type

of person to take initiative (on
projects like these),” Chung
said. “But they were like ‘anyone
can do it, you just need to start’
and I was like okay, maybe we
can actually do something, even
if we don’t win, it’s just a chance
to try and do something, to
create a project.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, January 18, 2018 — 3A

ALUMNI
From Page 1A

that have contacted us to see
what we are doing and get
copies of our questionnaires.
We’ve been very open with
them because we want this to
be something that grows and
develops. Hopefully at some
point we can compare across
institutions.”

A report from Planet Blue,

the University’s collaborative
effort to further sustainability
education,
research
and

operations
tracked
positive

progress
on
nearly
every

sustainaibility
goal
the

University had set for itself.
Greenhouse gas emissions, the
findings detailed, decreased to
5 percent below the 2006 levels

last semester Callewaert added
the over the past years, positive
trends have clearly emerged
at the University, particular
centered around meals.

“There’s been real increases

of
awareness
around

sustainable food. That’s an
area where there have been
positive changes both in terms
of awareness and behavior,
and we think that a part of the
reason for that is there is a lot
of activity on campus related to
sustainable food,” Callewaert
said. “The University has put
a lot of effort into it and we
are seeing the results in our
survey.”

Still, progress has not been

uniform. For example, student
transport remains a major issue
on campus.

“The one area where we have

seen a decrease over the four
years is in regard to sustainable
travel and transportation for
students,” Callewaert said. “In
2018, we are asking about Uber
and Lyft use for the first time.”

Robert Marans, the survey’s

other
principal
investigator,

points out that despite the
steady
increase
in
campus

sustainability
awareness,

taking behavioral steps toward
sustainability can prove more
challenging.

“Behavioral
changes
have

been
slow,”
Marans
said.

“Things haven’t changed that
much in some areas over the
past four years as we had
hoped.”

Fortunately,
the
data

collected
by
SCIP
surveys

can and are being used by
organizations
to
address

sustainability issues on campus.

“There’s
been
a
major

overhaul
of
the
recycling

and waste containers across
campus. It’s very clear about
which items can be recycled,”
Callewaert said. “The team that
worked on that was looking at
SCIP data and results to inform
their decision making.”

Planet Blue aims to change

the University’s culture by
promoting sustainability.

“Few universities are making

efforts to change the culture,
which is really what the Planet
Blue effort is about,” Marans
said. “Even fewer are trying to
track the change in culture over
time, and that’s where the SCIP
surveys come in.”

Erin Barton, an Environment

and
Sustainability
graduate

student who works at the

Graham
Institute,
describes

the importance of the SCIP
survey in an email interview
with The Daily.

“In general, social science is

important for creating a more
sustainable
society
because

human behavior is a major
barrier, often more so than
science and technology,” Barton
wrote. “We need to understand
what people do and why they
do it if we want to facilitate
positive behavior change.”

The SCIP project is aiming

for
2,500
students,
1,000

faculty, and 1,000 staff to fill
out the survey this semester.
All
survey
responses
are

completely
anonymous
and

allow the University to better
obtain its goal of creating a
sustainable culture.

INNOVATE
From Page 1A

SURVEY
From Page 1A

Ann
Arbor
City

Councilmember
Zachary

Ackerman (D-Ward 3) welcomed
the Supreme Court’s decision.
He said the community would
be fighting for a full cleanup
of the dioxane to prevent it
from entering the Huron River.
This challenges the recently-
imposed state requirement that
Gelman
Sciences
keeps
the

concentration of the chemical
below 7.2 parts per billion,

which is still more than twice
as high as the Environmental
Protection
Agency’s
posted

concentration for carcinogenic
risk.

“I think it’s expressly the

goal
of
the
community
to

fight for full cleanup, and I’m
excited that Ann Arbor will
have the opportunity to fight
to protect the drinking water
of the residents we’re sworn to
protect,” Ackerman said.

The
Ann
Arbor
City

Attorney’s Office declined to
provide comment, based on the
fact that the litigation between
the parties was ongoing.

Gelman
Sciences
has

previously acted in attempt
to negotiate solely with the
Michigan
Department
of

Environmental Quality, which
may more likely to settle for a
smaller cleanup than the local
jurisdictions. Laura Rubin, the
executive director of the Huron
River Watershed Council, said
examples like the Flint water
crisis indicated the agency may
not be tough enough on similar
environmental issues.

“I think, like many of the

other
partners,
we
were

unhappy with how things were
going with the cleanup –– 30

years later and we still have this
plume,” Rubin said.

“And I think also, there’s

no question that Flint and
the Toledo water crises have
opened everybody’s eyes to
sort of reanalyzing whether the
DEQ and regulatory authorities
are really doing enough on
these kinds of issues, and so
that sparked us to start asking
harder questions.”

Rubin said it was unusual

an
environmental
nonprofit

like the Watershed Council
got a standing in such a case,
and it faced challenges such as
Attorney General Bill Schuette

explicitly arguing against its
intervention.
She
believes

Supreme Court’s decision set an
encouraging precedent.

“I think it does open up more

cases like this, for environmental
groups to come in, and I see that
as a huge victory because in this
political climate, environmental
regulations and policies are being
de-emphasized,”
Rubin
said.

“And I think that going forward,
the
role
of
environmental

groups, citizens, scientists and
local governments is one that is
going to have to step up and be
more of a watchdog and invest
more in monitoring.”

COURT
From Page 1A

NAVIGATING IDE NTIT Y

CHUN SO/Daily

Panelists discuss their experiences surrounding topics of underrepresented identities in the workplace at the Alumni Center Wednesday.

I’m excited

that Ann Arbor

will have the

opportunity to

fight

The one area

where we have

seen a decrease

...is in regard

to sustainable

travel and

transportation