Summary: Two-year paid position to manage a community center in rural Ecuador and coordinate the intern/volunteer program that is used to staff the center and implement projects aimed at sustainable development opportunities, ecological education, and the broadening of social, artistic, and cultural horizons in the community. The ideal candidate is a versatile and resourceful leader, age 24-32, preferably with some education experience and food-growing experience, fluent in English and highly proficient in
Spanish, with a lot of initiative and passion.

Background: A few years ago a small group of American and Ecuadorian conservationists founded a nonprofit organization, purchased several hundred acres of rainforest and cloud forest in coastal Ecuador, and established an ecological reserve. In the middle of the reserve we built a sustainable research station, which is affectionately called the Bamboo House. Once we had our feet under us in the reserve, we partnered with a local family to establish a learning center and volunteer house in the nearby hamlet of Camarones. There we pursue sustainable community development and education for children and adults.

From these two project sites we are working for a locally appropriate model of sustainable living. Our goal for ourselves is 100% food self-sufficiency within ten years, primarily through the use of agroforestry and permaculture land management techniques. For the surrounding communities we seek livelihoods based in economically and ecologically sustainable alternatives to logging, hunting, and cattle ranching, which are the major threats to this endangered habitat.

Our flagship program in the community is the guidance of a local Youth Group as they develop their own small-scale organic farm, as means for local youth to gain skills in leadership, personal initiative, group work dynamics, entrepreneurship, and a strong sense of character, in addition to providing an ecologically-friendly economic alternative.

Job Description: For a complete job description, please visit our website
at: http://www.3malliance.org/index.php?id=527
Here you can download a PDF file of the job description, which also includes application instructions.

The ideal start-date is October 15th, although there is some room for flexibility. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and we are eager to fill this position quickly, so if you are interested, please apply as soon as you can.

Catonsville Rails to Trails!

The purpose of the Catonsville Rails to Trails, Inc. (CRTT) shall be to unite individuals in the community around the common theme of promoting hiking/biking trail enhancements in the greater Catonsville area. The objectives shall be:

Contact bealternativeUMBC@gmail.com if you are interested to get your organization involved!

Yes, Los Angeles is famous for celebrity sightings, traffic and smog. But its lesser known sustainability achievements are what drew AASHE to the City of Angels for this year's conference. Take a look at a few reasons why L.A. is a great place for a national sustainability conversation:

• L.A. is home to more than one million college students

• Thanks to the recent LEED Gold certification of the University of California, Los Angeles' Clinical and Translational Research Center, the University of California system has hit a milestone of 100 LEED-certified facilities.

• Through the Mayor’s Office of Energy, Environment and Sustainability, L.A. met the Kyoto targets for reducing greenhouse gases four years ahead of schedule; has taken over 2,000 dirty diesel trucks off the road; met the first target of getting 10 percent of energy from renewable sources; and put into place a far-reaching green building program.

• L.A.'s Green Business Program works to increase sustainability among businesses. Partners include the Mayor’s Office, Los Angeles Community College, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, Green Globe, and Green Seal.

• The LEED Gold-certified Los Angeles Convention Center was recently welcomed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a national Green Power Partner, and is now a qualified member of the EPA’s national WasteWise program.

• The host hotel for conference attendees, Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, was the first L.A. hotel to earn Green Seal Silver Certification, and was acknowledged by the Mayor’s Office for leading the way in sustainable hotel practices.

• 6 STARS Participants and 5 AASHE member institutions are located in the L.A. area

For more reasons to visit L.A. for AASHE 2012, visit the conference website. Hotel discounts end September 22 and registration ends October 8 so register soon! For any conference questions, contact conference@aashe.org.

Alumna Jeehye Yun ’97, computer science, was profiled along with her cybersecurity company Secured Sciences Group (SSG) by The Baltimore Business Journal’s Jack Lambert in an article published on September 7th.

Read the full story here.

Yun told Lambert that SSG–a member of UMBC’s Research and Technology Park, and which is in the process of working with the research park on a plan to attract investors–is particularly adept at cutting through red tape and redundancies which can occur in government applications, saying, “We can take a lot of disparate policies and figure out where the overlaps are.”

The alumna, who is CEO/President of SSG as well as a former teacher at her alma mater from the late-90′s, also told Lambert that the company’s upcoming technology will new technology will hopefully cut through the quantity of material companies have to sift through from government grant applications and contracts by finding the overlaps between for organizations like the Department of Defense, the Navy and the Marines.

Yun also noted that her company’s products also have value for colleges, management consultants and small businesses, saying, “The biggest rule of thumb for us is, actually, are we solving a problem where we would want to use the product?”

This story originally appeared in UMBC Insights.