MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Environmental Collaboration Office uses its Eco Interns to give college students experience in environmentally based careers.
Trent Thurston is one of the Eco Interns this year. One of his responsibilities is outreach in the community.
Earlier this year, Thurston was at the Harambee Neighborhood Improvement District meeting to tell people about the Environmental Collaboration Office’s initiative.
“We are here to promote sustainability within the Harambee and the surrounding areas,” said Thurston.
Thurston also tracks the energy use of Milwaukee’s government buildings.
He said he wanted to be an Eco Intern because he believes the government plays an important role in advancing environmental policy.
“I felt like I could do a lot more change doing the policy work where I take that science, those results and work with the community and the government and other organizations and try to implement new policies to try to make life a little easier for everybody,” said Thurston.
Amanda Holzer is also an Eco Intern. She assists with Plastic Free MKE to reduce the use of plastics, help with grant writing and work on Milwaukee’s Water Centric City Initiative.
“It’s an important aspect of life. We can’t live without water, but also it’s a way to connect the entire city because we are all interacting with that in some way whether we know it or not,” said Holzer.
For Holzer, it’s been important to see what it takes for environmental policy and action to happen.
“I gained an appreciation for how much work goes into all of these things,” said Holzer. “Seeing how hard everyone works to make not only lives better but also change policy and advocate for all of these people.”
Thurston said he also feels more prepared for the future after gaining this valuable experience.
“Just knowing how to talk to people, table at outreach events and also kind of the more nitty gritty of being around for meetings, discussing potential policy,” said Thurston. “So I think that that experience will really help me work, either in the city of Milwaukee in the future or with a different government agency, like the Environmental Protection Agency or the Department of Natural Resources.”
Both Thurston and Holzer said they are proud to work as Eco Interns for the Milwaukee Environmental Collaboration Office.
They said this was a vital step to carry on the torch of advancing environmental policy in the future.