Meet Our Sustainability Interns

Jennifer Beidel, Recycling Intern

(December 2010)

Jennifer Beidel grew up on a farm in the small village of Silex, Missouri. With a population of 202 people, almost all of them farmers, she spent most of her life outdoors. As a child she had a great passion for amphibians, which eventually lead her to become aware of the growing concern of clean water.

In June of 2001, at the age of 17, Jen joined the United States Navy. During her 4 years as a Sonar Technician aboard the USS Laboon, she saw firsthand just how complex problems relating to water quality could get. Issues such as waste dumping and oil pollution caught Jen's attention, and have yet to fade from her conscious. After her honorable discharge in 2005 she was determined to take her knowledge and passion for preserving clean water and turn it into a career. Jen graduated Magna Cum Laude from Tidewater Community College in Norfolk, VA and later transferred to George Mason. She is presently a Senior majoring in Conservation Studies with a double minor in Sustainability and Ocean & Estuarine Science.

At the 2010 Green Festival, the largest sustainability event in the world, Jen acted as the co-manager of the Resource Recovery Team. While there, she helped train over 300 volunteers and obtain a 94% waste diversion rate. This position helped lead Jen to her current job, as the Recycling Research Assistant for Office of Sustainability. In this position, she works with both the Office of Sustainability and the Waste Management Department in an effort to improve recycling rates and education on campus. She is also working to start a composting program on campus. In her free time she works with the School2Bay program teaching 6th graders in Prince William County how to testing water quality using Macroinvertebrates and the importance of clean water and wetlands. Her future goals include the creation of a sustainable community and being involved in wetland restoration projects.

Anartia Gamboa, Sustainability Intern

(May 2010)

Anartia was born in San Jose, Costa Rica. The child of a biologist and a park ranger, she was exposed to the natural beauty of Costa Rica from a very young age, which eventually led her to become passionate about a variety environmental issues. She has always enjoyed interacting with people, and in high school found a love for public speaking. In 2007 she addressed the Virginia Assembly and spoke in front of 200 people at Virginia Pro-Choice Lobby Day. She has facilitated and coordinated several workshops in topics ranging from contraceptive choices, to Ecofeminism.

Anartia is currently a senior majoring in Global Affairs with a concentration in International Development, and minors in Mandarin Chinese and Conservation Biology. She became a member of the Environmental Action Group (EAG) her freshman year, but didn't become active in its leadership until her junior year. She's now a Steering Committee member for the EAG, and hopes to get as many students involved in sustainable practices at Mason as possible. On campus, she is also involved in the Progressive Student Alliance, PRIDE Alliance, the Hispanic Student Association, and the Mason DREAMers.

In the future, Anartia would like to be involved in a career with a lot of traveling; until then she's hoping to volunteer in the Peace Corps after graduating.

Ryan Hogue, Sustainability Intern

(June 2011)

Ryan Hogue came to George Mason as a freshman in 2007. He's an Information Technology major with a focus in web design & multimedia, and has a minor in Computer Science. Web design has always been an interest, but Ryan's knowledge also extends to both client and server side coding as well as front-end design. He launched a web development and design website, and is also familiar with database structure/design, and video/audio editing, and also enjoys gaming online in his spare time.

Outside of computer-related activities Ryan enjoys staying physically fit by playing sports with his friends and working out. He's a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity at GMU and gives back to the community through various philanthropy events each semester. He will graduate from Mason in May 2012.

Tyler Orton, Bike Village Intern

Tyler Orton is the Bike Village intern at GMU. He's been working on bikes longer than he can remember and specializes in creating working bikes from piles of junk. He's worked locally at Oasis Bike Works for the past three years as a head mechanic, and more recently assistant manager. Tyler is excited to revolutionize the Bike Village and share his love for bike riding and repair. Through the Bike Village, and other bicycle related projects, he hopes that more of George Mason will learn the joys and benefits of Cycling. Although he's spent most of his time repairing bicycles, he's excited to start looking at the bigger picture. Tyler is currently studying music at GMU and plays in the band UGLY Tyler would be happy either being a professional musician or perusing bicycle advocacy and coordination efforts.

Justin Raphael Roykovich, Sustainability Intern

(June 2011)

Justin Raphael Roykovich received his BFA in Art and Visual Technology cum laude and with honors from the School of Art at George Mason University. As a working visual artist, his work focuses on the intersections between entertainment, media and identity construction within the modern American society, with particular emphasis on sexuality and masculinity.

He works across discipline, most notably in video, photography and printmaking. He combines these media aspects to create new narratives within our popular culture, redefining meaning and reinterpreting the context to display a new ways of viewing. His work as been shown across the Washington DC and New York City area and he was recently recognized by the Vimeo Film Festival + Awards for his cinematic essay.

Vina Sananikone, Sustainability Intern

(June 2011)

Vina Sananikone is an Arts and Visual Technology major with a concentration in Graphic Design. She cofounded SoA Green with Justin Raphael Roykovich and is one of the founding members of the GMU Printmakers Guild and re:collective, a DC/Virginia art collective. She has been designing for the Office of Sustainability since Spring 2011. Sananikone enjoys photography, talking about food, and updating her ten personal blogs. She hopes to travel the world, eat good food, and save people from bad design choices. Thanks for reading her bio. You're nice.

Dan Stock, Sustainability Intern

(June 2011)

Daniel is from the island community of Kailua, Hawaii. Growing up in that down to Earth atmosphere he developed a strong sense of conservation and stewardship of ones community and environment.

In 2008 Daniel came to Mason as a resident of the Green floor and naturally became a part of the Environmental Action Group (EAG) on campus. He worked on several campaigns in the EAG such as a general awareness and outreach campaign, as well as the patriot green fund and mountain top removal work. In 2009 Daniel transferred back home to Hawaii and got involved in the student government there as the student activities coordinator on the executive board. He continued with his organizing in environmental awareness and environmental justice until transferring back to George Mason University in 2011.

He is currently an Environmental and Sustainability Studies major with a concentration in Economics and a minor in Psychology at George Mason University. Daniel Serves in the EAG steering committee as the groups central coordinator, and is one of the founding members of the progressive student alliance.

Alex Tyson, Sustainability Intern

(September 2010)

Born to a pair of diplomats, Alex Tyson was born in England and spent her childhood abroad. Her father, an energy specialist, strived to teach her the importance of responsible energy usage and policy.

She currently is a junior majoring in Global Affairs and Government and International Politics, with a minor in French. After becoming involved with the Environmental Action Group at the very beginning of her freshman year, she realized her passion for ensuring the protection of the environment wasn't going to fade away. As a freshman, she served on the Mason Energy Roundtable Planning Committee and the Climate Action Planning Committee. However, the turning point for her was in March of 2009, she attended the national Power Shift Summit in Washington D.C. Under the guidance of other group members and Colin Bennett, it finally hit her how high the stakes for the future were.

In her sophomore year, she served as co-chair of the EAG with Lauren Peery and Jason Von-Kundra. With Lauren, Alex helped spearhead the organizing and event planning for Virginia Powershift at Mason. Throughout the year, she oversaw recruitment of new members, helped secure grants, and helped continue working on the PGF campaign. In the future, she would like to work in the foreign policy arena, with a specific focus on drafting environmentally sound policies for the American public and the international community.

Jason Von Kundra, Sustainability Intern

(May 2011)

Jason Von Kundra came to Mason in the fall of 2009 and immediately made a splash. Working tirelessly on issues of environmental and social justice, Jason has created positive change here on campus. As a student leader he has been instrumental in many of the school's recent environmental initiatives. Jason helped lead a successful campaign to provide funding for sustainability on campus resulting of the development of the $100,000 per year Patriot Green Fund. He also led the push for more sustainable food at Mason and is excited to have Everlasting Café, an all vegan restaurant, come to campus. Through his involvement in the movement to end the environmentally destructive practice of mountaintop removal, Jason has brought speakers from the coal fields to campus, organized groups of students to lobby on Capitol Hill, and taken students to Appalachia to see mountaintop removal firsthand.

Jason is a member of the leadership team of the Animal Rights Collective, a group campaigning for just treatment of animals. He has actively worked to ban animal circuses on campus for illegal violations of the Animal Welfare Act. In 2011 student government passed a resolution in support of the group's efforts. As a co-founder of the GMU Students for Workers' Rights, Jason advocates for the right to unionize, living wages and safe working conditions. Seeing all the sweatshop free clothes made by Alta Gracia in the bookstore is one of the reasons he is proud to be at Mason.

He plans to graduate in 2012 and work as a community organizer. Jason is committed to making the world a better place for all of its inhabitants.

Barbara “Babs” Wallace, Sustainability Intern

(January 2012)

Fostered by her parents' love of the outdoors and organic gardening, Babs developed an early love of nature and spent her childhood running around the forests and fields of California and Virginia. Her later travels to Alaska, Hawaii, Costa Rica, and her mother's native Philippines exposed her to critical global environmental issues, and conservation and preservation efforts.

While attending Christopher Newport University in 2007, she started to become more aware of sustainability on college campuses after encountering recycling issues on her dorm's floor. After transferring to George Mason University in 2008, she found the Environmental Action Group and her involvement with student groups in increasing awareness of campus sustainability efforts blossomed.

Babs is currently on the Patriot Green Fund committee, works with the Mason Green Patriots program in supporting other groups' green initiatives on campus, and tries her less-than-green thumb at home gardening so she can help out more in the Mason Organic Garden. In her free time, this crafty Babs likes to work on upcycling and (re)upholstery projects.

After dabbling in a few majors at Mason, she finally returned to her true interests and is currently majoring in Conservation through New Century College. This integrative program has sparked her interest in biocultural conservation and native peoples' cultural and spiritual ties to the environment. She hopes to work with indigenous groups to preserve biocultural landscapes after her graduation in Summer 2012.