Who We Are

2009-2010 Staff Profiles

SSC Director for Labor and Social Justice, Roosevelt 2010, Ethic Studies and Environmental Studies

Involvement: Student Worker Collective, Students for Justice in Palestine, One Earth One Justice

In working on social and environmental justice at UCSD and within the greater community, I helped to found the first Student Lobby Corps at UCSD, re-establish the Student Worker Collective, work on Fair Trade and give it the potential to become a UC-wide policy, and helped to make March 4th an amazing collaboration between environmental and social justice endeavors to reclaim the University. My development has depended upon the help and support I have received from amazing people and communities on campus, including professor K. Wayne Yang, advisor Yolanda Escamilla, advisor Traci Voyles, and my friends and family at the Cross Cultural Center, the Women’s Center, and within the Ethnic Studies community. In the past, I worked as an intern at the AS External Affairs office and the Associate Vice President of Local Affairs. I am currently the Vice President of Students for Justice in Palestine, the co-founder of the Student Worker Collective, a member of One Earth One Justice, and the student representative on the University of California Student Association Sustainability Steering Committee. I enjoy swimming, reading, editing, cooking, writing, traveling, and photographing!

Elizabeth Elman | elizabeth.elman@gmail.com

SSC Director for Urban Development and Transportation, Muir 2011, Cognitive Science

Involvement: Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children (fimrc.ucsd.edu)

In addition to her role at the SSC, Elizabeth is involved with the Foundation for International Medical Relief for Children (fimrc.ucsd.edu) and the UCSD Food Coop. She enjoys strong fair trade coffee, cycling, making pottery, and eating delicious vegetarian food. Her favorite quote, by Lilla Watson, reads “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

Rose Eveleth | rose.eveleth@gmail.com

SSC Director for Energy and Waste, Sixth College 2010, Environmental Systems and Writing

Involvement: Mania Magazine (maniamagazine.ucsd.edu), UCSD Pepband (ucsdpepband.com/wp/), AS Office of Student Organizations, Sierra Club Canyonlands, Alternative Consumer Blog (www.alternativeconsumer.com/), Science Translational Service (sciencetranslation.wordpress.com/), Literature Department Tutor

Rose Eveleth spends her free time looking for bugs, climbing trees, riding bikes and thinking about fish. At UCSD she’s an Ecology Behavior and Evolution major and a writing minor. In her spare time she’s the editor in chief of Mania Magazine, assistant manager of the UCSD Pepband, AS Director of media relations, a tutor for the Literature department, and an intern at a handful of blogs. After UCSD, Rose hopes to find a place in the ever turbulent world of journalism where she can write about looking for bugs, climbing trees, riding bikes and thinking about fish. Favorite quotes: “Let’s think the unthinkable, let’s do the undoable, let’s prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.” – Douglas Adams “Our imagination is stretched to the utmost, not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things which are there.” Richard Feynman

Jared Muscat| jaredamuscat@gmail.com

SSC Director for Food, 2011, Sociology

Involvement: The Sustainable Food Project (http://www.sustainablefooducsd.org/), Giraffe Catcher Poetry (http://giraffecatcherpoetsociety.wordpress.com/), KSDT DJ

To me the idea of environmental and social activism, seems to not be a choice or a question or an alternative style of life. That is to say, it is not some radical attempt at life, rather it is how life works-in order for those younger than me to enjoy Mother Gaia, I need to tend to her. My favorite thing I have done at UCSD is working with The Sustainable Food Project over the last two years bringing an Urban Farm to campus! I am a writer and a surfer and my legends are other writers and surfers, but also musicians because they always seem to have an element of caring that might either be on the surface, John Lennon, or hidden beneath some aura, Dane Reynolds. One of my favorite writers, Allen Ginsberg, in a poem of his, “The Sunflower Sutra” wrote: Poor dead flower? when did you forget you were a flower? when did you look at your skin and decide you were an impotent dirty old locomotive? the ghost of a locomotive? the specter and shade of a once powerful mad American locomotive? You were never no locomotive, Sunflower, you were a sunflower! Which, to me screams: Poor sad humans? when did you forget you were an animal? when did you look at your skin and decide you were an impotent dirty old jerk? the ghost of a jerk? the slap and scowl of a once monarchical angry American jerk? You were never no jerk, Human, you were an animal! So, lettuce start caring again, show some love for Mother Gaia, and show some love for your fellow, as Buddha said: “Your work is to discover your world and then with all you heart give yourself to it.”

Cindy Yeh | cindyyeh@gmail.com

Assistant Director/Design Intern, Roosevelt 2012, Environmental Systems, Communication

Involvement: KSDT staff and DJ (www.ksdt.ucsd.edu), UCSD TzuChing, AQUAholics.

Hello, my name is Cindy Yeh and i am the design and media intern for the Student Sustainability Collective! I am based in the Bay Area, and am full Taiwanese. Other orgs I am involved in on campus include, KSDT, Tzu Ching, and I now also work at the University Gallery in Mandeville. In the past I have worked with mainly children with special needs, art shows, a planetarium, as well as my high school newspaper, El Estoque as the Entertainment Editor. I enjoy a nice cup of tea, laying on the grass, surrounded by the beautiful voice of Zach Condon (Beirut) and reading the words of Sylvia Plath. I currently enjoy writing poetry and short stories about my life, and my dream is to find a cure for the pollution that is killing the population of Taiwan. My proudest achievement is having the ability to capture the universe into a recycled jam jar, stars milky way and all.

Jordan Liss | jordanandliss@gmail.com

Assistant Director/Calendar and Website Coordinator Intern, Marshall 2012, Environmental Engineering/Environmental Studies

Involvement: UCSD Ultimate Frisbee, KSDT Radio DJ, Neighborhood Garden Volunteer, AQUAholics Anonymous, Public Art, Graffiti Coalition

My name is Jordan Liss and the life motto I currently hold closest is Margaret Mead’s quote, which reads, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” And so far that quote has propelled me to be an advocate and activist for environmental and social justice through joining organizations, such as AQUAholics Anonymous, Student Art Collective and the Student Sustainability Collective. I’m in support of public art, public transportation and public voice. My proudest accomplishments have ranged from protesting for lower student fees and administration accountability. And if I’m not in meeting for sustainability or working on a project, I’m probably cycling, hiking, running or taking the path less ventured.

Annie Le | thienann.le@gmail.com

Assistant Director/Grassroots Marketing Intern, Warren 2013

Involvement: UCSD Invisible Children Schools for Schools, Haiti Emergence Action Team, WENIRUDA Foundation

As a first-year at UCSD, I have been lucky to find myself in the fold with the good folks of the Student Sustainability Collective as the Grassroots Marketing Assistant Director. I’ve gained a great deal from this gathering of passionate people, among them delicious recipes, ample reasons to avoid apathy, and a growing commitment to joining the movers and shakers who strive for a cleaner, kinder world. In the past, I have been involved with Model United Nations and the Justice and Service Committee of Good Shepherd Parish’s Core Team, with which I organized the first of a now annual reforestation effort at a local campsite affected by the 2003 Cedar Fire, and a benefit concert for St. Kizito Children Foundation of Northern Uganda. I’m currently working with UCSD Invisible Children Schools for Schools and the Haiti Emergence Action Team. I enjoy listening to the wind whistle on leisurely bike rides, making handmade crafts, tracking down excellent sushi establishments, documenting all sorts of things via camera, blog and journal, identifying birds, and pretending that NBC Thursday night comedies are created for my sole entertainment. One of my favorite quotes is by Susan Sontag: “Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.”

Noor El-Annan | n.elannan91@Gmail.com

Assistant Director/Administrative intern, Roosevelt 2013, Literature

Involvement: Students for Justice in Palestine, Junior Youth Empowerment, I-Cares, Muslim Student Association, Arab Student Association

Please excuse Noor’s lack of skill in describing herself in the first person seriously. Noor is involved in the Arab Student Union, Students for Justice in Palestine, Muslim Students Association, Junior Youth Empowerment, I-Cares, various CCC activities, amongst other student orgs. Her hobbies include knitting, writing, working out, bonding with others, and picking up other nifty pastimes. Role models are many for Noor, but number one is her mother. Favorite quote would have to be “i saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free”(Michelangelo). Right now, her proudest accomplishment is making it through the intense circuit-training class at her gym back home especially after dorm food. Her experience with social and environmental justice has been born during her freshman year. It has included, but is not limited to, her tenure at the SSC, involvement in various BSU and March 4th protests, and spreading the word of injustice (in order to combat it, not encourage it). She hopes to become increasingly involved in such movements. Noor is relieved to have finished this bio; third person is surprisingly difficult.

Lizzie Caldwell | lizziebcaldwell@gmail.com

TGIF Grant Coordinator, Warren 2010, Environmental Systems

Involvement: Alpha Epsilon Phi, UCSD Pepband, Greeks Gone Green, Science Translational Service

When I first came to the SSC, I never thought of adding social and human rights to the definition of sustainability; I was a little confused, but decided to keep my mind open and see how it all fits. Now, I can’t talk about sustainability without bringing up indigenous rights, labor rights, and other social justice topics. One of my proudest moments at UCSD was bringing the idea of a “Green Recruitment” to my sorority, which consists of using simple changes to the formal recruitment process that reduced our waste. We were able to save 11 full trashcans, and are now working with other Recruitment Chairs to implement similar changes to the process. I’m also in the middle of trying to create a laboratory sustainability program at UCSD. In my free time (whenever that comes up), I enjoy swapping amazingly weird youtube videos with my roommates and complaining about my landlord.