Category: 2018

Broghan Sagers

MA ’18

I am working with the Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas to invite Texans to experience and unite around the land that represents their history and future. By introducing the community to Big Thicket and the opportunities  on the preserve represent one side of the project’s mission. The innovative goal is to take the preserve to the people; instead of relying on people coming to the preserve, the preserve will take a more active role in the community outside of Big Thicket. The promotion of environmental stewardship and fostering of a community could ultimately spread to afterschool education programs or exhibits at the library.

The preserve itself will reach out reach out via social media, newspapers, and the national park rangers to find what the community wants to learn or share about Big Thicket National Preserve. By working in this collaborative manner, Big Thicket National Preserve will spread and strengthen ties between itself and local organizations, businesses, schools, libraries, and individuals. The preserve will change from the only entity attempting to create community ties to a point in an interconnected community working collaboratively; a single community that encompasses the preserve and those who live around it.

Library Mentor: Alex Deeke

Brigitte Smith

BA ’18

Our mission is to develop socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable water technologies to meet the identified needs of communities locally and abroad. Our current project is focused on installing a low cost and replicable Rainwater Catchment Systems throughout communities of Jicaral, Nicaragua. By engaging and enhancing our connections with the communities of Jicaral, we hope to build a sense of ownership among the people to ensure sustained success and positive impact of our systems. In addition, the NicarAGUA project empowers team members to innovate and engage in BLUElab’s design process throughout our projects with access to educational resources and experiential opportunities to advance members’ skills in this field of work.

Library Mentor: Jamie Niehof

Anna Lenhart

MPP ’18

Across campus, experts present on the technology, regulatory and business opportunities surrounding Autonomous Vehicles (AV). The events are fascinating, but experts frame them—it is time for an event that invites “lay citizen’s” to share their perspectives on AV. The AV Consensus Conference in Washtenaw County will be a form of participatory planning where lay citizens, with no formal expertise in a technology, are empowered to share their values, concerns, and suggestions. Our steering committee for the conference is building relationships with: INspire, Mcity, CivCity and the EPA participatory planning division. This project will also provide a consensus report will provide these organizations with information on public values, while also empowering citizens of Washtenaw County who are traditionally left out of these conversations.

Library Mentor: Paul Grochowski

Andrea Belgrade

PhD ’20

“Through my Eyes: Stories of Young Refugees” is an art exhibit and research project using Photovoice methodology. This project aims to provide refugees, especially children and adolescents, a voice in public discourse. This project aims to empower participants, increase understanding and empathy for these people, and help to build scholarly knowledge which may eventually inform policy both locally (within the schools for example) or nationally (federal policy). We will work with local school districts in Washtenaw County and Washtenaw Refugee Welcome, a non profit community organization. After our participants have taken their photographs and created captions, we will have them engage in debriefing focus groups where they will have a chance to discuss their photographs. The photographs, captions, and the focus group discussions will be coded to identify common themes that may arise for participants, helping us to understand both their shared and unique experiences. These photos will be displayed in the form of an exhibit to help educate the general public.

 Library Mentor: Justin Schell

Akira Nishii

BSE ’19 & BS ’19

Perch is a new student organization that aims to improve the undergraduate lab application process. We plan to achieve this through an online platform that centralizes communication between research faculty and students, as well as a standardized system of training and certifying research skills. The certifications (in laboratory techniques) we provide can be uploaded onto the online application platform to make students more attractive candidates to laboratories.

Library Mentor: Angie Oehrli