EVST News September 9, 2024

Thank you to all who attended the EVST picnic last week!  Do you have questions about the EVST major? Meet with EVST's BA DUS or BS DUS, reach out to a Peer Mentor or Certificate or Graduate School Liaison, or join Yale Environmental Studies on GroupMe. 

Weekly DUS office hours are posted on the EVST website here.

Events this Week

The Atlantic Opportunity  | Wednesday, September 11, 12:00 PM
Online via Zoom, and Burke Auditorium (195 Prospect Street)
 Jonathan Howard (Yale University), YSE. This talk interrogates the environmental implications of Europe and Africa’s transatlantic crossings, through the lens of Thoreau’s musings on the former in his essay “Walking.” Broadly, Jonathan Howard argues that these crossings give rise to two radically diverging interfaces with the planet: whiteness’ stand your ground subjectivity and blackness’ ongoing inhabitation of the deep. Lunch provided. Register here.

The Quest for the Plant Script | Thursday, September 12, 4:30 PM, HQ L01 (320 York Street). Sumana Roy (Writer and Poet). If plants could write, what stories would they tell us? What might we learn—about ourselves and the botanical world—if we learned to read, write, and translate a language rooted in vegetal life? In this lecture, Sumana Roy traces the evolution of our century-long fascination with the “plant script,” a term she uses to describe our various attempts to parse a language from plants.

Opportunities

Climate Innovation Grants - Application Now Open! CBEY will award up to five seed grants from $500-3,000 to student teams bringing forward innovative ideas to mitigate, reverse, or adapt to climate change. Early-stage ideas/ventures and nonprofits are encouraged to apply. At least one current Yale student (undergraduate, graduate, professional or doctoral) must be involved in the team. Applications will close on September 25th, 2024 at 11:59 PM. Please see the CBEY website for FAQs, detailed application instructions, and list of past seed stage grant winners. Reach out to Josie Jayworth (josie.jayworth@yale.edu) with any questions about the grant.

Apply for the Climate Innovation Intensive! The ‘Climate Innovation Intensive,’ is a 6-week program designed to deepen your understanding of climate entrepreneurship and innovation. In its third iteration, this intensive unites startups, investors, and partners in a cohort-based format, focusing on innovations across different sectors of climate tech. Sessions are scheduled on Monday evenings from 5:30-7:30 PM. The program’s core is to equip students with structured tools and frameworks to navigate climate innovation. This is achieved through workshops and insightful conversations, highlighting the diverse entrepreneurial perspectives within environmental innovation. Engaging discussions with startup founders, investors, and key ecosystem stakeholders will offer a comprehensive view of the financing and scaling of these innovations. Applications are due 9/13 at 11:59PM. Apply here: Intensives Application Fall 2024

Sign up for the PFY Newsletter | Plant-Forward Yalies is a new organization on campus dedicated to discussion around and working to build a more just, sustainable and humane food system by adopting a plant-centric approach to food systems reform. The group’s programming includes an eight-week introductory fellowship (see below), a speaker series with leading voices in the sustainable food & ag space, bi-weekly plant-forward group cooking events and volunteering opportunities with local sustainable food & ag non-profits. Sign up for PFY’s newsletter here, and feel free to email plantforwardyalies@gmail.com with any questions!

Apply for PFY’s Fellowship | Interested in discussing how to build a more just and sustainable food system? Join the Plant Forward fellowship! In the first half, we’ll explore factory farming through the lenses of climate change, public health, food justice, and animal welfare. After that, we’ll discuss how to fight these injustices at a local and global scale, including activism, policy, agroecology, and science. Each week’s meeting will involve a group discussion and a Q&A with a guest working in the space. At the end of the fellowship, each fellow will be connected with a Yale alumni focused on food system change in the specific area that that fellow is most interested in. To learn more about the fellowship, email plantforwardyalies@gmail.com. Applications are open until September 15th here.

Applications for Yale Credit for Spring 2025 Abroad |  Credit for Spring Term Abroad applications and Petitions for Spring Programs not on Yale's Designated List are due October 1st. Questions about Study Abroad? Contact Emma Barrett EVST '25, Study Abroad Student Outreach Coordinator, and EVST Study Abroad Liaison. Emma studied abroad at the SIT IHP Food Systems program in Fall 2023, traveling to Ecuador, Malawi, and Spain. 

Fall Job Openings

*NEW* Student Communications Assistant | The Carbon Containment Lab (CC Lab) is hiring a paid Student Assistant for fall 2024, to help us communicate the Lab’s mission of developing innovative approaches to carbon removal and emissions abatement.  Interested candidates should submit a Resume and Cover Letter to info@cclab.org. Please include "Application for CC Lab Communications Assistant" in the subject line, and in your cover letter please include how you heard about the position. The deadline for applications is October 1, 2024, at 11:59 PM EST.

*NEW* Ucross High Plains Stewardship Initiative (UHPSI) has paid student jobs that allow students to work with the National Wildlife Federation on GIS-related projects. Contact Michelle Downey, Program Director, Ucross High Plains Stewardship Initiative with questions.

• Research Assistant for Montana Beaver Conflict Resolution Program: Mapping Conflict and Program Success | We are seeking a student to research different mapping platforms such as Earth Engine, Esri Products, and QGIS to determine the most effective strategy to visually demonstrate beaver conflict in Montana spatially. Once a software/platform has been identified, the student will compile beaver conflict data from across Montana and integrate it into an interactive online map that can be viewed by the public and easily updated in-real-time by program staff.
• Research Assistant for Processing Remote-sense Environmental Data to Inform Habitat Selection Models for Pronghorn in SW Montana |The successful student applicant will assist the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership (SMSP), a network of partners including federal and state land managers and nonprofits, to assemble a suite of remotely-sensed habitat variables in a GIS framework that will be used to model pronghorn habitat selection in southwest Montana. These models will be used to identify existing and potential pronghorn movement corridors, and will inform where habitat connectivity efforts, namely wildlife-friendly fencing projects, should be prioritized. 

*Accepting Applications* Student Research Position with Professor Benoit | This research project studies macroplastic litter and microplastics in the New Haven area.  Team members will collect and characterize plastics in and between all urban environmental compartments including street margins, catch basins, bioswales, street sweeping, storm drains, streams, ponds, and eventual transport to Long Island Sound.  Involves both field and lab work, and training will be provided as needed. Contact Professor Benoit.

Opportunities for Seniors

M.S. Student for Research in Marine Sciences | The Chemical Ecology Lab at the Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut - Avery Point Campus  is seeking a dedicated M.S. student to join a dynamic research team working on an innovative project exploring the cycling of monomethylmercury. The start date is January 7th, 2025. This NSF-funded project, titled "Collaborative Research: A Novel Approach to Study Monomethylmercury in Natural Phytoplankton Assemblages," offers a unique opportunity to engage in impactful marine science research. Details here.