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Koret Fellowships 2022-2023

Josue Hernandez-Perez
Josue Hernandez-Perez
Majors in Environmental Science
My current position at the Center for Sustainability is Circular Economy Coordinator, which focuses on finding ways to reduce waste by coming up with creative ways to reuse items that are seen as trash and repurposing them. I help with supporting various programs on campus that connect students, faculty, and staff through a circular economy that could save the university money, while also reducing waste through acts of either sharing or bartering. I also help with hosting events that promote sustainability to other clubs and organizations on campus to help foster an inclusive environment where everyone can learn to be sustainable. Another part of my internship is to help with creating more collaborations across the campus in order to spread awareness on being sustainable so that SCU values are formed.

This type of program helps the SCU community get access to the resources they need without buying new items every time. Another similar program is the Lending Library, which is quite new and is focused on faculty and staff to share items that they can lend to one another so there could be less waste and more saving. Swap for Good is a great example of bartering where students can come bring their clothes and switch them for a new set of used clothes. Lastly, terracycle is a program on campus that helps with taking certain types of unusable items like Brita filters, toothpaste, empty makeup containers, and empty skin care products, which get shipped to certain organizations that repurpose them to reduce waste and save on materials. In general, programs that focus on repurposing items in order to reduce waste can help with creating an environment where waste is not an issue at SCU.