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As a student, recent Virginia Tech graduate Aaron Barr helped found the largest student environmental group on campus. His coalition of more than 800 students helped implement a volunteer-driven paper recycling program after the university cut funding for its recycling program. More than 20 academic buildings and hundreds of offices recycle paper weekly now with the help of the program’s 25 student volunteers.
While on campus, Aaron also started can recycling programs, litter clean-ups, energy awareness programs, and an annual large-scale Earth Day celebration used to raise environmental awareness among the Blacksburg community. Aaron is gifted at mobilizing students around common concerns and building cooperation rather than competition among various groups on campus.
One of Aaron’s most rewarding service experiences while on campus was his work with Scottie’s Place – a wilderness camp for homeless children nestled in the mountains of West Virginia. Homeless children and their families come to Scottie’s Place each year to participate in weeks of therapeutic wilderness adventure. Children that typically lead lives of crisis and despair take back their childhoods and emerge with renewed senses of self-esteem.
Aaron has worked with campus faculty and students to help build a renewable energy system for the camp. Five engineering classes participated in the service-learning project. The students got to go out and apply what they had learned. Aaron covered most of the costs for this project, estimated to be more than $2,000. The wind turbine will save Scottie’s Place money on electricity, which can now be diverted to other important needs.
Reflecting on his volunteer and service-learning experiences, Aaron is amazed at the support that existed for the projects he initiated. He could always count on at least 250 students showing up. |
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