Mason team tackles climate change in Virginia counties through new three-step initiative

Mariam Aburdeineh — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 17:54:54 +0000

Mason team tackles climate change in Virginia counties through new three-step initiative Mariam Aburdeineh Thu, 12/09/2021 - 12:54

In This Story

Joel Hicks

Solving climate change is a grand challenge facing the planet. As more individuals and leaders are recognizing the need to switch to environmentally friendly practices, ��AV’s Local Climate Change Planning Initiative (LCCPI) is helping make that a reality for counties across Virginia.

“Our vision is to have Mason be the lead university in helping counties that lack the resources and expertise in [addressing climate change] get this done,” said Paul Bubbosh, a 1988 Mason alumnus and adjunct professor at the Schar School and College of Science.

Wealthier counties have funding to mitigate environmental issues, said Bubbosh, who started LCCPI with Schar School adjunct professor Joel Hicks in Fall 2021. Many smaller jurisdictions do not, he said, and they may not have staff for these initiatives.

LCCPI, housed within the Center for Energy Science and Policy, allows Mason to bring in its resources and expertise in modeling, engineering, environmental science, policy law, and more, to provide pro bono services to these counties, Bubbosh said.

Students will play an active role in the initiative’s three-stage process, which the Mason team is piloting in Manassas City.

The first stage, which Bubbosh said takes four to six months, is about gathering data on the county’s emissions footprint and having students conduct inventory modeling.

The next stage involves working with community leaders for a year to develop goals, such as changing streetlights to LEDs or reducing emissions, he said.

“In that process, which involves students leading community meetings with faculty, we begin to educate members of the public about the things they desire,” Bubbosh said. “It’s moving them toward understanding what makes the best, most economical, most practical sense for the community.”

Working at the local level is where critical change can happen, said Bubbosh, who said LCCPI was inspired by his time as a Peace Corps volunteer, when he saw how local communities are impacted by climate change.

That’s why stage three provides heightened value.

Hanna Metuda is one of two undergraduates volunteering with LCCPI. Photo provided.

“Any contractor you hire to do this leaves at stage two,” Bubbosh said. “We want to embed students in internships with the local county to help them implement what they found in stage two.”

“Being in the forefront and crafting creative solutions that could ripple through other communities is really inspiring,” said Hanna Metuda, a senior studying government and international politics. “That Mason is allowing students to be a part of that is exciting…and it gives me hope for our environment.”

Metuda is one of two undergraduates volunteering with LCCPI. She said growing up in the Philippines with the effects of pollution and climate change inspired her environmental drive. While she said she’s excited to apply what she’s learned in the classroom, she understands challenges could arise.

“Students will discover hurdles along the way that no classroom will ever be able to prepare a student for,” Bubbosh said, suggesting some challenges may be insurmountable. “However, that learning experience, even at a loss, is a win for students in terms of practical work experience.”

“It’s about seeing results—not academic exercises—and actually making a difference in someone’s life,” he said.

From left to right: Delegate Rip Sullivan (D-48th) from Manassas, Paul Bubbosh and Ambassador Richard Kauzlarich, Director of Mason's Center for Energy Science and Policy. Photo provided.

Topics

Sustainability

Sustainability Research

Schar School

Schar School Faculty

College of Science

Center for Energy Science and Policy

Manassas

Campus News

Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE)

Government and International Politics

internships

Climate Change

climate change education

environmental science

Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)

Katherine G. Johnson Hall will be a beacon for Mason students

Melanie Balog — Wed, 19 Jun 2019 19:46:53 +0000

Katherine G. Johnson Hall will be a beacon for Mason students Melanie Balog Wed, 06/19/2019 - 15:46

Katherine G. Johnson overcame institutional racism and sexism to help put the first men on the moon and carve a path for women and people of color in science and space exploration. Now students at ��AV will know her story every time they step onto the Science and Technology Campus in Manassas, Virginia.

Mason on Wednesday named its largest building at SciTech, formerly Bull Run Hall, Katherine G. Johnson Hall, after the trailblazing NASA mathematician whose story captivated millions in the Oscar-nominated movie “Hidden Figures.”

Johnson, 100, was unable to attend, but family members including her daughters Katherine Moore and Joylette Hylick and grandson Troy Hylick attended on her behalf, joined by roughly 200 friends, university officials and guests in the Verizon Auditorium at Colgan Hall. A chorus of Mason students and alumni led by Lisa Billingham, professor of choral music education, opened and closed the program and generated enthusiastic applause from the audience.

Kevin Clark, a professor in the division of learning technologies and the director of the Center for Digital Media Innovation and Diversity within the College of Education and Human Development, was among the program speakers and said the newly renamed building would serve as a “constant reminder of the intelligence, intensity, patriotism and dedication of Mrs. Katherine Johnson.”

Mason President Ángel Cabrera said Johnson’s story is a good fit with Mason’s mission to provide higher education access to previously underserved groups.

“I hope that the family of Katherine Johnson sees and appreciates this is an institution dedicated to making sure that any person of color gets access to excellence, access to opportunity,” he said.

Clark, whose research focuses on attracting more women and people of color overall to STEM disciplines and careers, spoke more of the visceral impact upon impressionable young people of seeing someone successful in the STEM field who looks like them.

“Seeing is believing,” he said.

Cabrera announced an additional honor for Johnson on behalf of the state of Virginia, which formally decreed Wednesday to be “Katherine G. Johnson Day” throughout the commonwealth.

Johnson worked at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, for 33 years, performing complex calculations and flight path analysis for U.S. spacecraft in the early years of the space program, including for the Apollo 11 flight to the moon in 1969. She worked on the space shuttle program before retiring from NASA in 1986. NASA facilities have been named in Johnson’s honor, and she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.

“The impact that she made on the space program is immeasurable, and it is fitting that this building, which houses science and technology programs, should bear her name,” said Julian Williams, Mason’s vice president for compliance, diversity and ethics.

Attracting more women of color to STEM degree programs is a priority across U.S. higher education, including at Mason, which produces more graduates in computer-related fields than any university in Virginia.

Kelly Knight, an assistant professor with Mason’s Forensic Science Program within the College of Science and the college’s STEM outreach coordinator, also spoke, and brought a group of her Females of Color Underrepresented in STEM (FOCUS) campers with her. One of those high school students, Olena Bromell, read an excerpt from “Reaching for the Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson.”

The building’s naming means that inspiring the many coming behind her could ultimately be Johnson’s greatest legacy, Knight said.

“This is a reminder to young people of color,” Knight said. “We, too, deserve to have a seat at the STEM table.”

Topics

Science & Technology Campus

Katherine G. Johnson

Manassas

Campus News