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Fellow Profile
Antonio Bautista
University of California: Santa Cruz, CA

Students teaching students is a concept that has been a model for experiential education by the Education for Sustainable Living Program (ESLP-a student lead organization) at University of California Santa Cruz. The program consists of a 300 student class that is comprised of a lecture series and Action Research Teams (ART’s). This project is in collaboration with one of nine ART’s that will taught in the Spring of 2009; the Ecocities and Sustainable Communities. The ART will be an open space to inspire, guide and open doors for students to investigate projects and to present current and previous projects from our campus community at UCSC. The ART will develop curriculum that demonstrates the many levels of planning and design of an Ecocity. Students will see the best practices that are moving cities of today to ecocities in areas of building, water, food, energy, transportation, and other sustainable areas. The lectures will be complemented with project labs, field trips, guest lectures, supplementary readings, and leadership development. This ART will create the next generation of the sustainability leaders on the UCSC campus. Our main goal is to motivate students to create their own project and create a project proposal that will help UCSC become an Eco-campus. One of the lab projects will create educational material for the Vending Miser project and for the under construction LEED Silver Cowell Student Health Center. The Vending Miser project will install vending miser on all vending machines on campus to reduce energy usage. This project is expected to reduce 38.17 metric tons of CO2 and save 95,745 kWh per year. The mission of the Ecocities and Sustainable Community ART is to broaden the horizons of students to see that they can become involved as key components in the fight against Global Warming.

About the Fellow

I was born in East Los Angeles, California where at the time the current movement of sustainability is unacknowledged; however the essence is deep-rooted in the culture of the immigrants that inhabit the area now. My parents are Mexican immigrants from Zacatecas, Mexico. Two of the most important values my parents instilled in me where the importance of hard work and the value of education. I lived my whole life in the inner city until going on a high school trip to Yosemite National Park. There I experienced the natural world for first time. This experience not only taught me the importance of protecting our natural environment, but also that education is a powerful tool in changing the world. After high school I went to school in the east coast to pursue a degree in pre-law. After a year I decided that the program was not for me and came back home. I then went to Pasadena City College (PCC), where I was able to explore many disciplines. At PCC I learned the option of an environmental science degree. One of my greatest professors, friend and mentor changed my life forever at PCC. Ling O’Connor, a geology professor instilled the love of nature in me. She not only challenged me intellectually but also spiritually. At PCC I was the co-founder of the Seeds of Change an environmental club in which Ling O’Connor is the advisor. I then transferred to UC Santa Cruz to pursue an Environmental Studies and Economics degree. Once at UCSC I became the Green Building Coordinator for the Student Environmental Center where I organized a campaign to place a student fee on the ballot to construct the UCSC student health center as a LEED Silver Building. The student fee passed and is currently under construction. I also co-facilitated the “Green Building and Ecocites” ART in the spring quarter 2008. The “Green Building and Ecocities” ART had three projects; the first was Eco-Campus Guide, second was LEED proposals for 5 student buildings, and the third was a rainwater catchment system on a small campus building. During the summer of 2008 I also organized the first zero-waste UCSC summer orientation for incoming students. I’m currently the Chancellors Undergraduate Climate Action Intern working to create a Climate Action Plan for our Campus and an Education for Sustainable Living Program facilitator for the Ecocities and Sustainable Communities. In the future I hope to work with cities to draft their own climate action plans and implement solutions to achieve goals outlined in their plans. I also have a desire to work with the World Bank and help the third world countries develop in a sustainable matter.

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