Johannah Waite
Student Internship at Keeping Greater Milwaukee Beautiful
By Megan Helt-Baldwin
Keeping Greater Milwaukee Beautiful is a non-profit organization that works in partnership with the Milwaukee community to address neighborhood cleanup and beautification, waste reduction, reuse, and recycling, environmental education for children, renewable and efficient energy use, and resource conservation. Johannah Waite is a CES major. This is her last semester at UWM. She plans on going to graduate school for environmental anthropology or economics. Here is a quick interview we did with her.
What attracted you to the program?
I first became interested in this program when I started doing neighborhood clean ups and I saw that they were a sponsor. The more I began to talk to my professors about my interests in social conservation/social & urban environmental education/science etc. (there is no title, so I find myself making up one- it changes) And when I would express my interests in that and Spanish, and working with the Spanish speaking community, several of them asked me, "Do you know Emily Brown?" I would respond no, and after the first time I was able to say, yeah I have heard of her. ANYWAY they explained to me what she did at UWM and what she does now. She is the Education and Outreach manager for KGMB. SO I was tuned into KGMB. Then during the past summer during my CIG training (certified interpretive guide) I used KGMB for my pseudo-organization. I pretended to represent them. This work to my advantage because I was able to show them the DVD of my CIG training and the program I developed. When I interviewed with THE Emily Brown! I got the internship right away! :)
What role did you play once you got there? Or what can other students look forward to?
What did I do once I got there? Well . . . KGMB only has two full time staff and one part time seasonal employee, so they rely A LOT on volunteers. Right off the bat I became two assistants. One: assistant to the Education and Outreach Manager, and two: assistant to the coordinator of the Great American Clean-UP GAC! So I started helping with the GAC, confirming date and places, and currently working with site coordinators and event planning. My focus will hopefully be working with the Basura Bash -a clean up that will take place on the south side of MKE on Sat. May 30th. I hope to be able to dedicate time to this because I would like to interact with communities in that area. (Also note: the GAC kick off for KGMB will be on April 18th at Gordon Park on Locust and Humbolt)
With the internship I believe I work more with the educational outreach manager. What I have been doing with that is preparing and updating educational resources- worksheets, activities, art project examples, etc. Then I started planning classes and presentations. I have been doing programs, such as Trash Art- teaching about recycling and what to do with things you don't recycle! TRASH ART! Also I have been giving tours of the Recycling center to school field trips, and other groups. They have given me a lot of creative freedom and they are very open minded to change and new ideas. They also have a lot of connections in the CITY, so I get to make good connections with these groups such as Safe and Sound and 16th St. Clinic, to see about arranging and planning events or talks or just help. We have been working with them for rain barrels education and community events. I find it an extremely friendly and inviting environment.
Like I said before KGMB relies highly on volunteers and interns. Some are working for the Living Green Festival, be it event planning or organizing programs for children. Other interns/volunteer prepare the supplies for the GAC site coordinators, others update the programs and information on the website. Others help with separate educational outreach programs such as the High school Environmental Engineering program, Geared to get HS students interested in engineering.
Johannah's first educational outreach experience at Hayes Bilingual School with an audience of 65 kindergarteners where she taught them about water conservation.
Water is Connected from Lakes and Rivers to Us!
The Importance of Water Conservation Being Taught Early
How did it change your goals, career plan, LIFE?
This internship opportunity has changed my way of life because it has given me an idea of what education is like. Also it has given me and inside look into a local non-profit organization. Being able to experience the educational aspect first hand has giving me a lot teaching and public speaking training. I understand the importance of the education and I know what it is like and what it involves. As far and changing my plans I don't know if I could say it has, but it has opened my mind to more areas that I could work in, expanding my horizons, for lack of better works. I am still really interested in working with the Spanish speaking community and KGMB is giving me an opportunity to push myself to where I want to be. Every time I speak in front of the children or adults I become less nervous, and that is a priceless experience.
If you are interested in participating in an internship you can begin by filling out the internship form at the CES office. Contact Mai Phillips or Glen Fredlund.
