UC students receive inaugural Arnold I. Miller awards

UC environmental studies major Jennifer Tomak. Photo/Provided

With a minor in communication and horticulture, Tomak's expertise comes in the form of plants and preservation.

"I was considering in high school doing a horticulture major because I love plants so much, but I realized my interests were a bit broader than just plants, and that's why it led me to environmental studies," she says. "This has much more balance between the humanities and science, and that was exactly what I was looking for."

Tomak has been active in her work with UC students for Burnet Woods, a volunteer club that targets not only preserving UC's local park but also giving students access to activities to do while there. They believe that because this park provides so much for the students of UC, they should not only get a chance to help preserve it, but also decide how it's done.

"UC students for Burnet Woods alone hit all the areas that we were looking for in terms of activism and environmental work in the Community campus," she says. "UC has a huge population. We flood the Uptown neighborhoods with our student population every fall and spring, and we utilize the park and its full advantage. We have students picnicking, studying in the park, walking their dogs, and people who cut through the park every day on their way to class.

"Having UC students have some kind of voice about what happens to the park and how it can be maintained, especially from an environmentally positive perspective, I think is huge. We want to preserve it, and interacting with the Community members who call Burnet Woods their backyard is super important."

UC environmental studies major Daoud Saadeh. Photo/Provided

"I'd say the environmental program makes an emphasis on being interdisciplinary, and I think that can be really beneficial for situations like mine, where it helped me find different avenues of the environmental field," he says.

Saadeh's guidance from the program and his professors allowed him to get involved on campus and gave him the opportunity to have his voice heard. He is a part of student government, where he was in charge of working on projects that would affect his fellow peers.

"My experience with student government was one of the most impactful experiences I've had. I was the director of sustainability. You see the ecosystem of UC, whether it be faculty, students, or everyone in between," he says.

"I got the opportunity to work on a couple of big initiatives, namely, the dining hall working to help select the new dining hall plan. I worked with the guiding team to add new halal meat throughout the university campus. We added the first-ever faith-based meal options for things like Ramadan, lent, and Passover. We updated cross-contamination, the policy for food service, and improved training.

In the future, Saadeh will serve as a senator-at-large on the undergraduate student government as well as the student representative for the SEaS strategic visioning committee.

"I'm honored to have my peers continue to trust me with such large responsibilities. My only hope is that I will continue to strive to live up to them."

Featured image at top: Graphic depiction of sustainability. Credit/Geralt for Pixabay.