Summer Grants for Sustainability Resesarch

The Center for Sustainability (CfS) is announcing its 2011 Summer Grant Competition to support research and creative activities related to sustainability projects.  The Instructions and Application forms for Summer 2011 are available from any faculty member.  The application deadline for the 10-week summer grant program is Friday, April 22.  Please note that the CfS summer grant program runs in parallel with the ATP summer program.  Students who applied for an ATP summer grant and did not receive funding may now apply for a CfS summer grant, but should speak with the CfS coordinators for suggestions on how to strengthen their proposal.

A series of Information Sessions and Workshops are listed below.  If neither you or your student are able to attend these sessions, please contact Ed Brush in Chemistry to set up a 1:1 meeting.

CfS Summer Grants Information Sessions: 

Monday, April 4, 11-1 Office of Undergraduate Research (Maxwell 200)….Lunch provided!

Tuesday, April 5, 11-1 Office of Undergraduate Research (Maxwell 200)….Lunch provided!

CfS Summer Grant Review Workshops – CfS personnel will review preliminary student proposals and provide feedback:

Thursday, April 14, 11-1 Office of Undergraduate Research (Maxwell 200)….Lunch provided!

Friday, April 15, 2-3:30 Office of Undergraduate Research (Maxwell 200)….Lunch provided!

Internships in Geography

Geography faculty just received the following message from Tracey Gray in Career Services. It looks like our talented students are in demand!

I wanted to alert you to three great internship prospects for students in your academic department as indicated below. 

Habitat Restoration Intern, The Trustees of Reservations                                                                         Job ID # 3842Help The Trustees of Reservations to monitor and restore a rare Atlantic White Cedar swamp at Copicut Woods. Responsibilities include:
• Inventory and use GPS to map all existing Atlantic White Cedar trees.
• Assess the cedar stand for evidence of disease or decay.
• Measure trees to determine diameter, height, crown spread and age.
• Conduct swamp transects to measure depth of peat layer and water depth at various times of year.
• Assess the impact of deer browsing on trees and explore methods to reduce impact of browsing.
• Assist with transplanting trees from tree nursery into swamp.
• Remove competing trees and shrubs from restoration site.

Transportation Planning Intern, SRPEDD                                                                                                      Job ID # 3935Students will assist staff with a wide array of data collection efforts including, but not limited to the following:
Traffic Counting Program and other highway transportation related programs-assist in data collection efforts that include:
• installation of automatic traffic counting devices on various highways
• manual traffic counts at signalized/non-signalized intersections
• vehicle crash data at local police departments
• use data base, spreadsheets and other software programs for data entry

Pavement Management-assist in data collect efforts that include:
• pavement condition surveys of Federal Aid Eligible roadways
• data entry of surveys into computer software program

Transit Planning-assist in data collection efforts that include:
• bus and train passenger surveys
• ridership data input

Geographic Roadway Runoff Inventory Program (GRRIP)-assist in data collection efforts that include:
• field work to inventory, evaluate and photograph roadway drainage structures and surrounding environs
• mapping (GIS), data entry and cataloging of photos for analysis and report development

Planning Intern, Town of Easton – Department of Planning and Community Development            Job ID # 3852           The Department of Planning and Community Development in the Town of Easton, Massachusetts seeks an intern to take part in a variety of department activities. Assignments will include assisting staff in a number of substantial projects relating to government funding, community outreach, zoning policy research, GIS analysis, and conservation policy. Some light administrative work will also be required. This will allow the intern to become familiar with day-to-day operations of a suburban, municipal planning department. Depending upon the intern’s demonstrated competence and department need, staff will consider including the intern in additional projects which the intern may find to be of interest.

Faculty and staff can view these opportunities as well as other full-time openings and internships listings by proceeding to CareerLink@BSU at: https://www.myinterfase.com/bridgew/faculty/home.aspx, entering faculty as both their Username and Password  and typing in the Job ID #.

Please share the above opportunities with colleagues and encourage your students to apply.  Students can create their own username and password at https://www.myinterfase.com/bridgew/student/home.aspx to access all of our listings.

Department Survey

BSU Geography Alumni -- if you have not already done so, the department would really appreciate your feedback on our program. Please take a few minutes to take our program survey.

Sustainable Water Program March 29

The Department of Communication Studies and the Center for Sustainability Present:

Increasing Public Awareness of Water Preservation & Sustainability Using Public Relations, Community Outreach and Education

A panel of industry professionals, educators and BSU staff discuss how they each work to educate consumers on these issues and generate public awareness, including the role public relations plays in community outreach efforts.

Tuesday, March 29th
1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Moakley Auditorium


The event is being held in 2 sessions for people who cannot stay for the entire event due to scheduling conflicts.

SESSION I: 1:00 – 1:45 p.m.  - Water Sustainability – Chemicals in Our Water What are the issues? What’s being done? What can we do to help? (Internationally, Regionally, BSU)

SESSION II: 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.- Best Practices in PR & Community Outreach & Communication Careers in the Environment Sector

Event MC:  Kim McCoy, BSU, Laboratory Coordinator, RiverNet Watershed Access Lab


Panelists:
Dr. Jabbar Al-Obaidi, BSU, Department of Communication Studies Chairperson, Director of the Middle East Studies Program and Producer of the documentary “Contaminated Drinking Water in Cambodia”

Edward Brush, BSU, Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemical Sciences; Co-Coordinator, Center for Sustainability and Member of the President’s Climate Commitment Task Force

Patricia Delaney, BSU, Environmental Health and Safety Officer, Facilities Management and Planning Office and Member of the President’s Climate Commitment Task Force

Alison Bowden, The Nature Conservancy, Director of the Freshwater Program in Massachusetts

Mark Campanale, Triumvirate Environmental, Client Relations Manager, Marketing and Social Media Manager

Scott W. Horsley, LEED AP Horsley Witten Group, full-service environmental science and engineering firm. Veteran consultant in watershed planning and water resources management.

Japan Relief T-Shirts

CafePress is selling t-shirts in support of Red Cross relief efforts in Japan. The shirts feature a nice map of the country with the word "hope" in Japanese. Ten dollars from each purchase goes to the Red Cross.

To economize on shipping while showing our solidarity as geographers, BSU geography student Ashley Costa is putting together a group order. If you are interested, contact Ashley (a5costa is her bridgew email) and get her the funds by Tuesday, March 29. The cost, to include shipping, is $18. If you round up to $20, any extra bucks will go to one of the many campus-based fund-raising efforts.

Learn more about BSU educational and charitable responses at http://www.bridgew.edu/response/JapanRelief.cfm. The day-long teach-in on Wednesday, March 30 will include at least a couple of the geography and geology faculty members.

GIS Job Upportunity

A graduate of our department is taking a new job, and has let us know -- through Dr. Rao -- about the upcoming vacancy in his place. This mainly GIS position includes both mapping and marketing duties, as outlined below.


Map duties: Custom maps based requests, including:

• Running Demographic Reports
• Producing Thematic based maps on Demo Variables
• Geocoding Retail Locations
• Doing Parcel Overlay Aerials.
• Zoning Overlay Aerials.

Marketing duties:

• E-blasts
• Website updates
• Creating brochures
• Working with Adobe Suite 

Contact:

Richard Pilla, Principal
Paramount Partners
rpilla AT paramountpartners DOT com
781-848-1550 x17
http://paramountpartners.com/

Japan Resources from BSU Asian Studies

Dr. Minae Savas and Dr. Wing-kai To of the Asian Studies Program have posted the following message for the BSU community. Dr. Savas is in the Foreign Languages Department and Dr. To is in the History Department.


Please join us in extending our heartfelt sympathy to the Japanese people for the casualties, injury, and damage they suffered from the massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan on March 11 and beyond. We have dozens of Japanese students studying at Bridgewater as well as hundreds of alumni and graduates who are from Japan or working in Japan. We are gradually able to establish contacts with many of them and our thoughts are with the well-being of them and their families.

For up-to-date news coverage of the disaster and recovery efforts, you can watch TV news as follows:

Information in English:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv

Information in Japanese:
NHK http://ustre.am/vmCj

The Japan Society of Boston has a website devoted to the tragedy and local relief efforts:
http://www.japansocietyboston.org/Earthquake

The Asian Studies program is coordinating with other campus offices to receive donations for relief to the earthquake and tsunami victims. We’ll provide you more information about our campus efforts as soon as they are available.

With deepest sympathy to our friends in Japan at this difficult time,

Minae Savas and Wing-kai To

LACS/PAIS Event -- March 16

LACS/PAIS Event

It would be great to see geography faculty and students -- especially those who have studied or visited Latin America, at this event. Those who took Geography of Latin America last fall will remember that Dr. Shanahan was an excellent guest speaker! In general, these reflections on the literature of the realm can help us to understand its cultural geography.

Incidentally, LACS is soon changing its name to Pan-American and Iberian Studies (PAIS) to reflect the broader scope of studies taking place at BSU.

Storied Lives: New Frontiers in Latin American and Caribbean History and Fiction

We cordially invite you to join us for a LACS symposium featuring brilliant new scholarship from BSU faculty

March 16, 10:00-11:30, Small Ballroom, RCC.

Refreshments will be served.  Open to students, faculty, and staff.

                                 

Featured lecturers are:

"Pushing Gender Boundaries? Dancehall, Migration and Trade in Contemporary Jamaican Culture” – Dr. Diana Fox, Acting Chair, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology

"Domestic Relations: Gender, Household, and Nation in Latin American History since 1850" – Dr. Erin O’Connor, Department of History

“La Frontera as Creative Space for Artistas Chicanas” – Dr. Jenny Shanahan, Director, Office of Undergraduate Research

 Moderator: Dr. Leora Lev, Department of Foreign Languages, Coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program

  

Sponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program

Contact Information:  Prof. L. Lev at x2449

DEP Summer Internships - March 15 Deadline

Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
Summer 2011 Summer Internship Opportunities
Application Deadline: March 15


Our department strongly encourages students to pursue internship and research opportunities because they deeply enhance learning while enhancing prospects for future employment. Students who have not yet done so should visit the Office of Career Services Office and the CSO web site for information about finding and preparing for internships. The office maintains a database of opportunities that students should check frequently.


Thanks to Internship Adviser Debra London for sharing a whole set of internship opportunities that should be of special interest to geography students. A variety of internships are available in various offices of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, and geography students are well-positioned to apply for several of them. Internships are not paid, but academic credit can be earned. 


Please note the application deadline immediately after Spring Break.