In striving to gain strength as an undergraduate climate community, this Autumn quarter has been eventful for the PCC Undergraduate Cohort (UCo). Heading into this academic year, we built on our strength as a Registered Student Organization (RSO) and set our focus on hosting more events. Our goals were to further build an undergraduate community and plan events focused on the interests and energies of the members.

Dawg Daze Climate Jeopardy

To kick off the year, we participated in Dawg Daze by hosting an event to welcome new students on the morning of September 23rd. We had over 30 students from across the university join us for bagels, coffee, and a competitive game of Climate Jeopardy. This was a fun first event of the academic year and helped us build our community with those new to UW. We also announced our search for officers at this event, which helped us grow the strength of our planning team and shape our events for the quarter.

Climate Ghost Stories Discussion

We held our second event on October 30th as a social collaboration with the Environmental Policy Student Association (EPSA). We teamed up for a discussion on climate and environmental policy current events, themed “Climate Ghost Stories” as it was held the day before Halloween. Attendees formed small groups to research and creatively present a current event, bringing to light lesser-known topics and promoting discussion. This event helped broaden our perspectives and connect with more students interested in the environment. 

Ecological Restoration with Whale Scout

Guided by the interest of Victoria on our leadership team, we joined together on Saturday, November 16th for an ecological restoration event. We boarded the bus to Bothell and joined the Whale Scout organization to plant native trees and shrubs and removed invasive Himalayan blackberries to strengthen local salmon habitats. Despite the cold and rainy weather, we had a great time working together and getting dirty for this service project. From the success of this event, we look forward to doing similar projects and collaborations in the future. You can read more about the purpose of this planting event here.

Undergrad Involvement

Our final event of the quarter was an Internship Search Party, the beginning of our 3 part undergraduate involvement series. This series is composed of 3 events aimed at getting students resources to gain experiences, skills, and involvement outside of their degrees, building strength for future careers. On November 21st, we held our Internship Search Party to help break down the intimidation barrier for applying and jump into the search and applications in a dedicated time and space. We began the event with an introductory presentation sharing resources and advice for finding, applying to, and staying on top of internship applications. We then broke out into a work session where students could begin working and chat with other students alongside snacks and music. This event included 30 students from engineering, ESRM, econ, computer science, biology, and many college of the environment programs. You can find the slides and event resources here.

As Autumn comes to a close, we are looking forward to continuing our involvement series in the Winter quarter. On the afternoon of Friday, January 17th, we will be hosting our larger professional development event of the series, featuring speakers from the career and internship center, the office of undergrad research, the climate science minor, campus RSOs, and more. We intend to provide on-campus resources for students and facilitate engagement in building career, research, and academic experiences. Additionally, we will be hosting a peer review session on Friday, January 24th to give students the opportunity to get feedback on their internship application materials.

Thanks to everyone who joined in on our events to make it such a wonderful quarter. A special thanks to our planning team, Victoria Tchervenski, Luciana Calle, Lorenzo McCleese, and Elise Herzfeld, who made these events possible.

To stay connected with UCo and our upcoming events, follow our Instagram @uwpccuco. To stay up to date with all undergraduate climate events, join the undergraduate listserve. If you would like to get involved with the UCo planning team, connect on a collaboration event, have resources to share with the group, or more, please reach out to uwpccuco@uw.edu

Written by Elise Herzfeld, PCC Undergraduate Assistant