Junior Elisabeth Cianciola is Dedicated Environmentalist
 
HARTFORD, Conn. – Elisabeth Cianciola ’10, was selected from among 515 candidates at 233 colleges and universities as a 2009 Udall Scholar by the Board of Trustees of the Morris K. Udall Foundation.

Cianciola, of Cheshire, CT, on the basis of her commitment to the environment, her leadership potential, and her academic achievement. Altogether, 80 students from 66 colleges and universities were chosen for this honor; Cianciola was one of only two from Connecticut.

Each scholarship will provide up to $5,000 for one year, and all of the Udall scholars will assemble August 5 through August 9 in Tucson, AZ to receive their awards and meet policymakers and community leaders in the fields of environmental studies, tribal health care, and governance.

An environmental science major with a 3.8 GPA, Cianciola has taken the lead in a wide array of activities in her three years at Trinity. She is a Trinity College Connecticut Scholar; a member of the Campus Sustainability Task Force; two-time chair of Green Campus; a member of the Recycling Task Force; and active in the campus branch of the Connecticut Public Interest Research Group (ConnPIRG).

She has also spearheaded the drive to create the environment-oriented theme house called The Treehouse, which is expected to be operational for the fall semester. An open house is going to be held April 29.

Cianciola has been involved in hosting the farmer’s market, which is open every other week in the fall, and she participates in Dump and Run, a program in which students collect clothing, furnishings, books and other goods that students leave behind when they depart from campus at the end of the academic year.

Cianciola has a particular interest in water quality issues and is working this semester on an independent research project to install a rain garden near Summit North. The objective of the rain garden is to reduce the amount of sewage that flows into local waterways.

Cianciola, along with her partner, Emily Quinton ’11, won one of three Campus Sustainability mini-grants this semester. The two were awarded $1,800 for a bag-sharing program to be used at two of Trinity’s dining facilities: The Cave and The Bistro. Their goal is to have reusable canvas and linen bags available for students to use in place of plastic bags, which can’t be recycled, take a lot of energy to produce and take up valuable space in landfills.

“Reusable bags are really the way to go because not only do they simply reduce waste as far as the number of bags used, they eliminate shipping costs and emissions,” Cianciola and Quinton wrote in their winning proposal. Students who use the canvas and linen bags can either return them when they’re done or leave them in drop boxes in residence halls.

Cianciola plans to work this summer for the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in its forestry division.

The Morris K. Udall Foundation is an independent federal agency that was created by Congress in 1992 to honor U.S. Rep. Udall’s legacy of public service. Udall served in Congress for three decades, “a career distinguished by civility, integrity and consensus.”

According to the foundation, Udall’s “love for the environment resulted in numerous pieces of legislation, chief among them was the Alaska Lands Act of 1980, which doubled the size of the national park system and tripled [this country’s] national wilderness.”  The Udall Foundation also includes the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, which assists in resolving conflicts related to the environment, public lands, and natural resources.

More than 1,000 students have been selected as Udall Scholars since the program was founded in 1996.