The Office of Sustainability has a dynamic team of interns who help drive the vision, organizational strategy, and leadership for advancing operational and cultural sustainability efforts at Washington University. This month, we begin a series of feature p on each intern’s background and accomplishments.
Nicola Salzman is one of two superstar Alternative Transportation interns. She is a junior, double majoring in Environmental Policy and Leadership and Strategic Management, and studying Mandarin Chinese. Nicola joined the Office of Sustainability team in January 2015. She has supported a range of alternative transportation programs and events designed to catalyze a campus culture that values sustainable and health-minded commuting options. She has been especially instrumental in planning and marketing the bi-annual Active Transportation Month, which features activities such as bike tune-ups, a bike-in movie, the Active Transportation Challenge, and an award ceremony for Challenge winners. She has promoted campus-wide initiatives through tabling and flyering campaigns, as well as through independent research on topics like bike hubs and commuter facilities. Recently, Nicola also served as the student lead gathering information for WUSTL’s Bicycle Friendly University submission and as one of three co-directors of the student Green Ambassador program.
In her spare time, she enjoys searching music blogs for new songs, eating food with friends, and doing anything creative. She has also always loved the outdoors, leading her to spend a summer biking across the United States. On campus, she has served as a leader for the Wilderness Project pre-orientation and going on outing club trips.
Nicola takes strong initiative with projects and has a commitment and enthusiasm for advancing our work and representing the office to the WUSTL community. She leads by example and strives to apply lower-impact practices in her own life. We will miss seeing her next semester while she studies abroad in Singapore!