About 50 people from the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development rubbed elbows at a Meet-and-Greet held on campus recently. It was a rare chance for students, faculty and staff from across the department to leave their roles behind and get to know each other on a more personal level.
SEED Student Profile: Kevin Rotsaert
Students at the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development are both enterprising and empathetic, qualities we like to encourage here. Whether the class is about social entrepreneurship or ecological economics, the lesson at the end is that success can't be measured in dollars.
A team of students from SEED's Environment and Business program has joined efforts with musician Jack Johnson to research and further develop All At Once, Johnson’s community-based, social action network.
Local Economic Development alum Konstantinos Karanasios was recently awarded with an Energy Council of Canada Energy Policy Research Fellowship, valued at $25,000. The award provides financial assistance for him to work on the EcoEnergy Innovation Initiative II project "Development of a utility grade controller for remote microgrids with high penetration renewable energy generation".
For Local Economic Development students who are new to the field, spring term is typically when they put away their books and start learning about economic development on the ground. A four-month internship is required for these future EcDev professionals but not all internships look the same; in fact, some ‘internships’ are really the first four months of a longer contract or permanent position.
The founding principal of environmental consulting firm AET Group Inc. has signed on to teach Environment & Business 202 (Environmental Management Systems) this fall.
Scott Freiburger is highly qualified for the role of sessional instructor with 17 years of experience in the field. In addition to academic theory, he plans to integrate his practical knowledge of environmental management systems and auditing into the course. He will be supported by Janet McKenzie, another Principal with AET.
Blair Feltmate, an Associate Professor here at SEED, has been very busy lately, giving more than 40 interviews on the extreme flooding in Calgary and Toronto over the last three weeks.
Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) hosted SEED’s Master of Development Practice (MDP) students for a day of learning and sharing around MEDA’s international development projects.
The School of Environment, Enterprise and Development's Master of Development Practice (MDP) program, which launched this past Fall, is already organizing its first international conference. Bruce Frayne, Director of the MDP program here at Waterloo, is excited about the opportunity to start contributing to the development practice field so soon after launching.