Leading on Climate
Maïko Le Lay
Bonnie Reiss CNI Fellow Class of 2019
Bonnie Reiss CNI Student Engagement Fellow
Graduate Student, Critical Dance Studies
UC Riverside
These past two years as CNI fellow, I realized that 1) CNI fellows ‘s efforts were not made visible enough to the UCR campus community and sustainability stakeholders, 2) that CNIs’ projects were disconnected from existing undergraduate and graduate Carbon Neutrality research, and sustainability efforts addressed notably by Inland Empire’s Indigenous communities, various UCR cultural centers and 3) that there is exist no sustainable infrastructures or mechanism to document and track UCR CNI’s projects, efforts, accomplishments, and challenges. My plan is to:
1) Implement a multilevel peer-mentorship program inspired by the existing UCR Grad Success mentorship program where faculty and graduate students mentor incoming graduate students. I would like to implement archiving and tracking processes through the peer-mentorship group and enable more cross-campus collaborations, increase visibility of sustainable practices and projects on campus, and diversify the field of sustainability by including various stakeholders from students, to faculty, to staff, to administration.
2) Make CNI fellows be more recognized for their efforts as Carbon Neutrality ambassadors at UCR. I would like to make sure CNI’s departments’ chair, college Deans, and the Chancellor are aware of their work and impact on campus by creating opportunities for them to meet and for their projects to be featured in UCR news platforms and increase their visibility.
3) Connect our work to existing sustainability-related work at UCR.
In sum, I would like to implement archiving and tracking processes through the peer-mentorship group and enable more cross-campus collaborations, increase visibility of sustainable practices and projects on campus, and diversify the field of sustainability by including various stakeholders from students, to faculty, to staff, to administration.
