We Invite You to our Potluck Dinner!
Greenway Institute emphasizes community-based learning and local action, and we want to connect with our neighbors in Montpelier. Join us on September 21st at 6:30pm for a potluck dinner in Noble Hall at 39 College Street. We look forward to conversing with you and introducing our students. All are welcome, and we encourage you to spread the word. In the spirit of sustainability, we ask that you help us reduce waste by bringing your own plates, cutlery, and serving utensils. Please RSVP here.
Greenway Students Visit Montpelier Water Resource Recovery Facility
One unique feature of our Sophomore Sustainability Semester is our emphasis on career exploration. We hope that students leave Greenway with an expanded view of the career possibilities available in the green tech and green energy fields, particularly here in Vermont. We also emphasize forming meaningful connections with professionals around Vermont, in an effort to expand our students’ network – a tool they can lean on when they enter the job market after graduation. In order to accomplish these goals, we dedicate each Friday of the semester to a different Green Career Trek. A Green Career Trek involves a visit to a Vermont business or agency that is engaging deeply with issues around sustainability and equity, a tour of the facilities, and conversations with professional engineers on site.
Last week’s Green Career Trek was to Montpelier’s Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) to meet with Christopher Cox, the Chief Operator. Below, our students reflect on this experience and make meaning out of what they learned.
Will
“My big takeaway from the visit to the water reclamation plant is how project aspirations change with new policy and technology. The plant has both changed and will change in the future based on the policies enacted by the state and city and new developments in technology. I see this as an important reminder to stay informed on all policies that apply to a given project and what technologies exist in that area”
Quincy
“I liked the research part of the job and how the employees weren’t stuck in an office repeating the same tasks daily, so hopefully I can use that when finding future employment.”
Jasmine
“The trip last week to the wastewater recovery plant was a big eye opener to how all the different types of engineers work together. Every part of the facility focused on mechanical, civil, biochemical, and other types of science/chemistry. Mr. Cox didn’t have a background in engineering but he took the time to understand on the job how every machine worked, and how all the chemicals used interacted with each other. This was all learned through interest and determination, which is all you need to learn anything.”
Sam
“I was surprised to learn just how much energy is in wastewater. I had assumed that most of the energy that was used to treat it would have to come from outside sources, instead of there being almost three times as much energy as you need to treat the wastewater in the wastewater itself.”
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