In Their Words: Intern Alayha Aquarian

This series highlights the most important people involved with the Alliance's Green Campus Program: our interns! The program employs more than 75 university and college students across California to implement energy efficiency projects at their campuses. See the entire In Their Words series.

In Alayha's Words:

• Name: Alayha Aquarian
• Campus: West Los Angeles College
• Studying: Computer Graphics, Real Estate

The first time I led a project as a Green Campus intern was to create an Earth Day event at West Los Angeles College, which had never had an Earth Day event before.  Because I had a great team working with me, I put the entire event together in two weeks, including advertising on the school website and promotion on and off campus. 

At the event, friends of mine from years of working in the ecological movement spoke on a green career panel (see "West Los Angeles College's Green Campus team"):  Josh Tickell, director of the award-winning movie “Fuel;” his wife Rebecca Harrell Tickell, author of “Hot, Rich and Green;” Ray Cirino, a permaculturist; LEED AP architect Heidi Creighton; and eco-entrepreneur Tatjana Luethi.

One of the most inspiring aspects of the event was bringing together different departments of the school and creating the event as a community.  The art department publicity created amazing signs with huge, reused pieces of poster board; the jazz ensemble played music; the Performing Arts Club shared ecologically themed poetry; and another club sold organic fruit cups with biodegradable spoons.  Several booths had informative displays such as electric bikes and biodiesel demonstrations. At the Green Campus team’s booth, we quizzed students on energy efficiency and gave them Green Campus swag as prizes.  And another booth promoted our summer xeriscaping project. 

It had been a dream of mine to create an event that inspires people to live consciously and in harmony with the planet.  Being an intern with the Green Campus Program helped me make that dream a reality.