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Lafayette Environmental Awareness and Protection is getting help with its recycling and educational efforts this semester from students in the Environmental Chemistry class taught by Chip Nataro, assistant professor of chemistry.
Covering topics such as pollution and energy sources, the course focuses on the chemical processes underlying the environment and the way human activity affects them. Students in the class commit 24 hours of their time to volunteering. The eight students fulfilling their requirement by helping LEAP are biochemistry major Jen Stroka ’03 (Tunkhannock, Pa.), neuroscience major Beth Stirling ’03 (Vestal, N.Y.), part-time student and chemical engineering major Fernando Molina-Polo (Bethlehem, Pa.), and chemistry majors Jessica Hronich ’04 (West Pittston, Pa.), Julia Handley ’04 (Seattle, Wash.), Chris Bashur ’04 (Washington, Pa.), Naa Lateokor Quarcoo ’04 (Accra, Ghana), and Matt Mackey ’04 (Warren, Oh.).
According to chemical engineering major Alanna Cleary ’03 (Bloomsburg, Pa.), secretary of LEAP, the organization and its helpers are working on several recycling projects. They are making sure that all recycling bins on campus are properly labeled and have surveyed existing bins to determine where additional ones should be placed. They are also trying to increase paper recycling, in part by implementing a student program to collect paper from Pardee, Markle, and Marquis Halls and carry it to paper recycling bins in Farinon College Center.
LEAP has made and placed a banner in Farinon specifying what is recyclable and giving statistics that show why recycling is important. In the past, members have participated in Wellness Day and have coordinated poster campaigns, a display on the steps of Farinon, and Earth Week.
LEAP’s elementary education group has also gone to several Kids in the Community sites to educate children about the environment.
“The group explains the importance of taking care of our natural resources, such as trees, air, and water, as well as the interaction of those elements with each other,” says Cleary, a chemistry major. “The volunteers then do a craft with the children, such as making a miniature biosphere out of pudding and other foods.”
Some LEAP members also went on a service camping trip to the Delaware Water Gap earlier this month, picking up trash along hiking trails, among other activities.
Other officers in LEAP include economics and business major Hart Feuer ’05 (Portland, Or.), president; A.B. engineering major Catriona Mhairi Duncanson ’03 (Basking Ridge, N.J.), treasurer; and electrical and computer engineering major Kristen Radecsky ’04 (Flemington, N.J.), morale officer.
Jessica Hronich ’04 assists Michael Chejlava in an EXCEL Scholars project titled “Evaluation of Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Environmental Monitoring of Groundwater.”