{"683860":{"#nid":"683860","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech Summer Interns Building Community Capacity","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEvery summer for the last eight years, Georgia Tech students, from engineering and computer science to sustainable energy and environmental management, have lent their talents and creative energy to metro Atlanta sustainability-oriented organizations to increase their capacity in the community.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scre.research.gatech.edu\/sustainable-communities-summer-internship-program\u0022\u003EThe\u0026nbsp; Sustainable Communities Summer Internship Program\u003C\/a\u003E in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scre.research.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ECenter for Sustainable Communities Research and Education (SCoRE)\u003C\/a\u003E taps students from across the Institute, who gain real-world experience in both sustainability and community engagement, while participating partners scale their operations and deepen their relationship with Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt is a nontraditional internship, but it is so effective,\u201d says Kristina Chatfield, director of business administration for the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS), who manages the operational components of the program.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EImpact on Atlanta\u2019s Sustainability Community\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENow in its eighth summer, the program has placed more than 200 students with over 60 Atlanta community organizations. Many return year after year, like \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.wundergrubs.com\/\u0022\u003EWunderGrubs\u003C\/a\u003E, an Atlanta-based insect farm that wants to bring a sustainable, nutritious form of protein to communities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI can\u2019t overstate the value that Georgia Tech students bring to our company every summer through the SCoRE internship program,\u201d says CEO and co-founder Akissi Stokes-Nelson, explaining that WunderGrubs\u2019 mission is rooted in food equity and social impact. \u201cWe\u2019re constantly innovating to support smallholder farmers, develop educational programs, and expand our reach both locally and globally. The SCoRE interns have been instrumental in helping us realize this vision.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStokes-Nelson says they add immediate capacity to WunderGrubs\u2019 small team, bringing fresh perspectives and technical expertise \u2014 whether it\u2019s developing new curricula for STEAM summer camps, introducing technology like Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and Arduino controllers, or helping the company build and scale its modular \u201cgrub shed\u201d farming systems. She credits them with enabling her to reframe her business, pilot new programs, and even expand internationally, citing a recent partnership in Rwanda.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhat sets the Georgia Tech interns apart is their maturity, technical skill, and genuine passion for social impact. They\u2019re not just here to learn \u2014 they\u2019re here to contribute, innovate, and help us grow,\u201d she says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe program is unique in its focus on both student development and organizational impact, particularly for underrepresented and first-generation students,\u201d says Ruthie Yow, associate director of SCoRE, who leads partner engagement and student learning.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech covers all costs, including stipends for the full 12 weeks. Students take part in a seminar one evening a week to learn about grassroots sustainability innovation. They can also earn an internship course credit.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EConnecting With Students in STEM\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIntern Ridoine Idrissou, a computer science undergraduate at Tech, supported WunderGrubs\u2019 \u201cTech Avengers\u201d STEM summer camp. \u201cWe taught kids about cybersecurity, IoT, how to be safe online, and they learned about mealworms. They got rid of almost one ton of trash,\u201d recalls Idrissou, who also developed IoT kits for the company\u2019s farm sheds. \u201cIt\u2019s not all about coding,\u201d adds the Togo, West Africa, native. \u201cIt\u2019s about connecting to the environment. It\u2019s given me a whole different type of experience than I normally have as a computer science major.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIdrissou, who has spent his last three summers interning, credits the program with giving him a chance when nobody else would. \u201cMy internship experience makes me appreciate the field I\u2019m in, and it gives me a good idea of how to be mindful, when building software or other products, of the well-being of other people.\u201d He plans to pursue a career in cybersecurity and system administration after he graduates next spring.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis positive internship experience isn\u2019t the only one. Another organization benefiting from Georgia Tech\u2019s talented students is the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.lifecyclebuildingcenter.org\/\u0022\u003ELifecycle Building Center (LBC)\u003C\/a\u003E in Atlanta.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShannon Goodman, a Georgia Tech architecture program alumna, serves as executive director of the LBC. She considers her interns foundational to her nonprofit, which reduces waste in the built environment by salvaging materials like lumber, cabinets, flooring, and appliances, and making them available to the community, nonprofits, and for reuse in new projects. The organization runs a 70,000 square-foot warehouse and provides free materials and services to nonprofits across Atlanta.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur interns have been the connective tissue that helps all the different resource-constrained CEOs and community-based organizations build strong, trusted relationships with each other and lay the groundwork for our training program,\u201d Goodman says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAssessing the Lifecycle of Salvaged Building Materials\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMorgan Hale interned at LBC while completing her graduate degree in sustainable energy and environmental management. \u201cThis internship program bridges sustainability with all the academic pathways at Georgia Tech. It does a great job of engaging students and educating them on ways to take what they\u0027re learning from school and map that into a career in sustainability,\u201d says Hale, whose capstone project focused on the lifecycle assessment of salvaged building materials. \u201cThis internship perfectly aligned with my academic and career interests in sustainability and policy,\u201d she adds. \u201cAnd the extra workshops and networking opportunities are invaluable.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor Goodman, education remains a key part of her team\u2019s role. \u201cOur job at the end of the day is helping people understand all the different types of opportunities that get lost when we just throw materials away. I don\u0027t know how we would do it without our interns. Through her capstone project, Morgan developed tools and procedures for calculating the embodied carbon and GHG emissions of the materials we salvage to create Environmental Product Declarations, or EPDs, for reclaimed materials, which don\u2019t currently exist in the U.S. EPDs allow us to prove exactly how much better salvaged materials perform compared to new products, and will enable the material reuse industry to scale in the U.S. at a rate never seen before.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELBC\u2019s connection to Georgia Tech doesn\u2019t stop with the internship program, however. \u201cWe have had countless professors from different departments of Georgia Tech bring their students here to learn about what we do, engage with us, and get materials from us,\u201d says Goodman, noting that back in 2022, Georgia Tech was instrumental in helping her assemble community organizations like the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance and many others to form the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.lifecyclebuildingcenter.org\/rebuildatl\u0022\u003EReBuildATL Coalition\u003C\/a\u003E. Today, the coalition includes more than 40 nonprofits, academic institutions, industry partners, and local government agencies that empower Westside Atlanta neighborhoods.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ELearn More\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Sustainable Communities Summer Internship Program is a partnership between SCoRE and the Office of Community-Based Learning. It is co-sponsored by the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems, the Strategic Energy Institute, the Renewable Bioproducts Institute, the Office of Commercialization, and the Sustainability Next initiative.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo learn more about the program, including how to contribute financially to the program or to become a participating partner, visit \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scre.research.gatech.edu\/sustainable-communities-summer-internship-program.\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/scre.research.gatech.edu\/sustainable-communities-summer-internship-program.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EBy Anne Wainscott-Sargent\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scre.research.gatech.edu\/sustainable-communities-summer-internship-program\u0022\u003EThe\u0026nbsp; Sustainable Communities Summer Internship Program\u003C\/a\u003E in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scre.research.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ECenter for Sustainable Communities Research and Education (SCoRE)\u003C\/a\u003E taps students from across the Institute, who gain real-world experience in both sustainability and community engagement, while participating partners scale their operations and deepen their relationship with Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt is a nontraditional internship, but it is so effective,\u201d says Kristina Chatfield, director of business administration for the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS), who manages the operational components of the program.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech interns fuel high-impact sustainability ventures throughout Atlanta, from insect farms to salvaged building materials."}],"uid":"27338","created_gmt":"2025-08-15 17:56:25","changed_gmt":"2025-08-15 17:59:29","author":"Brent Verrill","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2025-08-15T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2025-08-15T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"677706":{"id":"677706","type":"image","title":"LBC_cropped.jpg","body":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EGeorgia Tech intern Morgan Hale and Lifecyle Building Center Executive Director Shannon Goodman\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1755280616","gmt_created":"2025-08-15 17:56:56","changed":"1755280616","gmt_changed":"2025-08-15 17:56:56","alt":"Georgia Tech intern Morgan Hale and Lifecyle Building Center Executive Director Shannon Goodman stand in a warehouse.","file":{"fid":"261639","name":"LBC_cropped.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/08\/15\/LBC_cropped.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/08\/15\/LBC_cropped.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1338721,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/08\/15\/LBC_cropped.jpg?itok=VYqsG6Nx"}},"677707":{"id":"677707","type":"image","title":"WunderGrubs_Interns_cropped.jpg","body":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003ELeft to right: Nathanael Sancinito, Akissi Stokes-Nelson, and Ridoine Idrissou at the SCoRE internship closing session.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1755280714","gmt_created":"2025-08-15 17:58:34","changed":"1755280714","gmt_changed":"2025-08-15 17:58:34","alt":"Left to right: Nathanael Sancinito, Akissi Stokes-Nelson, and Ridoine Idrissou at the SCoRE internship closing session.","file":{"fid":"261640","name":"WunderGrubs_Interns_cropped.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/08\/15\/WunderGrubs_Interns_cropped.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/08\/15\/WunderGrubs_Interns_cropped.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1092819,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/08\/15\/WunderGrubs_Interns_cropped.jpg?itok=h9ogULaq"}}},"media_ids":["677706","677707"],"groups":[{"id":"244191","name":"Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems"}],"categories":[{"id":"42901","name":"Community"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"188360","name":"go-bbiss"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"194566","name":"Sustainable Systems"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:brent.verrill@research.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EBrent Verrill\u003C\/a\u003E, Research Program Communications Manager, BBISS\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["brent.verrill@research.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}