Bailey Arend (AYEA ‘05) is heating things up in Walla Walla, WA as he finishes his Chemistry degree at Whitman College.
At Whitman he has been involved with the Campus Climate Challenge, a nationwide group with the ultimate goal of making college campuses carbon-neutral. He says, “the talent and drive in CCC is impressive and it got me very excited about campus organizing and the many different ways to address climate change. One of our projects raised a substantial amount of money and aided the Whitman to install a 21kW solar array on the roof of a campus building. During my semester as Co-President of the Whitman CCC, it was gratifying to organize for 15 students to go to Powershift ’09 in DC. The face-to-face meetings with congress(wo)men was empowering and led to a follow-up meeting with Cathy McMorris-Rodgers at Whitman!”
Between semesters of chemistry classes, I spent one summer WWOOFing in Switzerland, learning permaculture design and building Yurts, gardens, composting toilets and a chicken coop. The past summer I tried to bring some of that experience back to Walla Walla, taking care of the student organic garden while doing research for my thesis.
My first environmental work was with Service High’s Green Club, collecting recycling after school. From there I became involved with AYEA’s push to coordinate recycling efforts across the Anchorage School District. I continue to enjoy environmental action that involves tangible progress and local visible benefits.
Learning about and becoming part of the environmental movement in Washington has made me want to return to Alaska and get involved with the community building and activism going on in my home state. I hope to find a job or internship that can put my chemistry degree to work for our environment. I will be using my free time to ski, hike, garden and get into the backcountry.
Keep up the great work Bailey!
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