Members of the Green Corps class of 2008 at their August training in Boston, Mass.

Thanks to your support, the Green Corps Class of 2008 Environmental Leadership Training Program kicked off in August. The class of 27 incoming trainees from around the country participated in a four-week introductory classroom training. I am proud to introduce you to this new crop of environmental leaders and report on a couple of the field campaigns Green Corps is leading this fall.

Each year, Green Corps reaches out to thousands of college seniors nationwide and selects the top applicants to participate in our Environmental Leadership Training Program after graduation.

The 27 members of the Green Corps Class of 2008 were selected from more than 2,000 applications—our largest number of applications so far. Green Corps gives them classroom training and hands-on learning experiences to help them launch their careers in the environmental field.

Here are a few profiles of the members of the Class of 2008.

Liz Gary
Liz Gary, a lifelong New Yorker, came to Green Corps to learn how to bring environmental values to urban communities. Growing up in Brooklyn and attending Barnard College at Columbia University, Liz became frustrated by how environmental issues are often ignored in large cities like New York. After graduating with a degree in American Studies, she applied to Green Corps, hoping to learn the skills to make our cities more sustainable.

During college, Liz was the captain of the Columbia University Water Polo Team, a role that honed her leadership skills. As an intern with the New York Citizens Union, she crafted policy recommendations on campaign finance that ultimately reached the desk of Gov. Spitzer. Liz was also active in electoral politics. She wrote candidate evaluations for a 2006 Voters Directory, which was distributed to 40,000 voters across the state.

After introductory training with Green Corps, Liz joined the Think Outside the Bottle Campaign with Corporate Accountability International in Boston, where she is educating people about the environmental abuses of the bottled water industry and advocating for public water systems.

Rob Klavins
With extensive experience in environmental research and education, Rob came to Green Corps seeking the tools to mobilize citizens to protect the environment. Rob graduated from Lawrence University with a Biology degree in 2006. While in school he conducted research projects with the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Medical College of Wisconsin and the Lawrence University Biology Department. Following graduation, Rob worked with the Nature Conservancy and Audubon Society in Wisconsin on invasive species removal.

After seeing firsthand the urgency of environmental problems such as habitat destruction and species loss, Rob decided that more needed to be done to protect our last wild places. Currently, Rob is working on a campaign assignment with U.S. PIRG, the Federation of State PIRGs, working to protect fisheries.