When junior Hannah Stahmann arrived at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she was looking for community. As she navigated various campus fairs, tabling events on Library Mall, and the Office of Sustainability’s annual Sustain-a-Bash event, she said she found that community among the campus’s many sustainability-focused student organizations.
In addition to making friends in these organizations, she’s also delved into a passion.
Stahmann, who will be graduating this spring, is now on the executive board of Campus Leaders for Energy Action Now (CLEAN), has been involved with the Associated Students of Madison Sustainability Committee, is a leader among the campus’s Re:wild movement, and is an intern at the Office of Sustainability (OS), all while double-majoring in Spanish and Environmental Studies with certificates in Sustainability and Public Policy.
It is not surprising, then, that she was the winner of the Emerging Leader (Re)Cognition Award at the Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability (UMACS). At the conference, which was held September 20-21 at Macalester College, Stahmann also gave a presentation on food access, an interest ignited by the student organizations, Food Recovery Network and Slow Food UW.
Stahmann is not the only UMACS awardee with ties to the Office of Sustainability. Andrea Hicks, director of sustainability education and research, also won a (Re)Cognition Award for her role as an educator. Hicks joined UW–Madison in 2015 as an assistant professor. Now the Keith and Jane Nosbusch Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hicks’ work focuses on the environmental impacts and sustainability implications of emerging technologies.
“This means technologies which are either brand new or not yet widely adopted,” Hicks explained. “I use tools such as life cycle assessment to understand the environmental impacts about these technologies, and how and when they have the potential to be environmentally beneficial. This work spans the range from engineered nanomaterials to autonomous vehicles.”
In addition to her research, Hicks also focuses on how to teach students about sustainability in a more meaningful manner. Since 2016, she’s taught a community-based learning class in sustainability engineering.
This type of learning is especially important to her, she said, because she thinks about the UW–Madison campus “as an industrial organism. The infrastructure of the campus supports the research and teaching efforts of the university.”
She adds, “Those research and teaching efforts can also be used to support improving the sustainability of our campus. It is a type of synergy that has the potential to impact all of the students, staff, and faculty on our campus.”
Hicks is also proud of how far the campus has come with respect to sustainability education and research.
“We have expanded offerings for undergraduate and graduate students through certificate programs and have expanded opportunities for faculty through the new Sustainability Research Hub,” Hicks said touching on some of the progress.
Stahmann shares a similar sentiment, even after just three years on campus.
“The thing I’m most proud of is the community around sustainably we’ve created on campus, more broadly,” she said. “I think the organizations I’ve been a part of – and the OS also has been a big part in that – there are so many students on campus that are so passionate about sustainability, and it used to be a more tight-knit group: everybody knew everybody. But now so many more students are getting involved because of all those events and campaigns.”
Witnessing Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin formally announce a sustainability commitment last year after years of student organizing “makes you really feel like you’re part of the change, seeing things happen before your eyes,” Stahmann said.
After watching other campus sustainability champions become “burnt out” over her first few semesters at UW, Stahmann has seen students regain hope again and be proud to call themselves Badgers. She’s also seen a reinvigoration around sustainability projects. The organization, CLEAN, for example, recently wrapped up Green Fund projects that will bring both B Cycles and electric lawn mowers to the UW Arboretum.
Hopeful herself, she’s excited to spend her last year uplifting student organizations, continuing her work at the Office of Sustainability, and potentially continuing her education in legal studies and sustainability.
“Work towards the goals is this big, daunting thing, because, there are very ambitious goals,” she said. “But there’s lots of really cool projects that are happening in order reach those goals, and I’m really excited to see those happen.”
By: Miquéla Thornton