June 2013 Sustainability Profile: Madeleine Turner & ESLP

Each month, our newsletter features a person or group on campus that is working toward a more sustainable world. This month's profile features the Education for Sustainable Living Program (ESLP), a multidisciplinary and collaborative student-led organization that offers an accredited 5-unit and 2-unit course every spring quarter focused on sustainability. Students partner with guest lectures and create student-led sections to implement sustainability into the UC Santa Cruz and greater community.

We interviewed Madeleine Turner, currently a Collaboration and Networking Sphere Organizer for ESLP, to learn about her experiences with sustainability at UCSC.

This year's ESLP organizers. Madeleine is in the middle row, second from the left.

We asked Madeleine what she thinks about sustainability and how it relates to her life at UCSC.

Name: Madeleine Turner

Title: Collaboration and Networking Sphere Organizer for the Education for Sustainable Living Program

Year & Affiliation: First year, Oakes College

Favorite Green Tips: I’d say try to walk and bike everywhere as much as you possibly can.  I literally don’t ever take the bus unless I’m going downtown (I live on-campus) or I’m seriously running late to something.  Not only can you save energy this way, but you’re automatically adding time to exercise and relax throughout the day.  

What does "sustainability" mean to you? With the word “sustainability,” I think of simplicity.  Our lives are often so busy and complicated.  How will anyone be able to change what they’re doing in order to be more sustainable, if they can’t even stop and evaluate what’s happening right now?  If everything was simpler, maybe the problems and solutions to becoming more sustainable would become simpler too.

How does sustainability relate to your role at UCSC? As a Collaboration and Network Organizer in ESLP, I’m here for getting the word out about the cool stuff going on with us. If you don't want to miss anything, like us on Facebook!

How do you practice sustainability in your daily life? I choose to spend as much time outdoors as possible. This way I’m not using electricity, and I’m not buying things I don’t need. I also believe that being close to nature helps me to foster good intentions about treating our earth well.

Have you had a favorite sustainability moment at UCSC? My favorite sustainability moment so far was going to my first General Gathering.  It was the first Wednesday ever of my entire college experience.  Somehow my friend Sativa, an ESLP organizer, recruited me that night as an intern. From that moment, my entire year’s path was changed in an immeasurable and awesome way.

Madeleine will be next year's Chancellor's Undergraduate Intern for the Education for Sustainable Living Program. Congratulations, Madeleine--we look forward to the great work you'll be doing with ESLP in the future!

To learn more about ESLP and its accomplishments this year, click on the photo below!