Category Archives: The City of Reading Public Works Outreach & Education

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EARTH SQUAAAAAD!!!

  By Omar Israel Santana • January 25, 2018 , ,

Hello, everyone, we are Earth Squad. The members of our group include Jorge Higueros who is a sophomore at Penn State Berks majoring in Global Studies Contemporary History & Politics, Omar Santana is a sophomore at PSU majoring in Rehabilitation and Human Services, Donal Contreras a sophomore at PSU majoring in criminal justice and applied psychology, Diana Arias is a sophomore at PSU Berks, she is majoring in Rehabilitation and Human Services with a minor in Psychology. For this project, we’ll be working with the city of Reading Public Works Department of Geocoding. Our appointment at the moment is going to be this upcoming Monday and was going to talk about the next steps we need to take as a group. We are looking forward to helping and contributing to our community through this organization.

 

 

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No Dumping Allowed

  By Matthew Barrett • January 25, 2018 ,

Our team consists of four group members: Matthew Barrett, Steve Mack, Jenn Farnum, Tyler Kemp. We are a mix of sophomores, juniors, and seniors at the Penn State Berks campus with a mix of IST, SRA, & SPLED. We chose the storm drain project because our team wanted to work outside and the project as a whole seems rewarding.

 

Matthew Barrett: A Security & Risk Analysis junior student studying at Penn State Berks. Matt is 26 years old and will be working for Cisco Security’s CSIRS team this upcoming summer.

Steve Mack: A Security & Risk Analysis senior student studying at Penn State Berks. Steve is a 35 year old military veteran and enjoys the outdoors and environment conservation.

Jenn Farnum: A Information Sciences & Technology sophmore student studying at Penn State Berks. Jenn is 19 years old and enjoys traveling and will be transferring to University Park, Penn State’s main campus.

Tyler Kemp: A Special Education sophmore student studying at Penn State Berks. Tyler is 19 years old and enjoys golfing.

 

We will be working with the Reading Dept. of Public Works when the weather gets warmer to label storm drains and to help prevent dumping into the waterways around the city. Were looking forward to making a difference in the community.

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Intro EACAP – Trash Can Gang

  By txk5269 • January 25, 2018 , , ,

Hi, the Trash Can Gang consists of Jeff Stango, Tyler Kreitz, and Luis Segura. Tyler and Jeff are both first year students here at Berks. Luis on the other hand is a second year student. We will be working with Kevin Lugo with our project. Our appointment is on Monday January 29th. 

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Planting New Beginnings

  By Mckenna Greener • January 25, 2018 , , ,

Hello!  We are team Flower Power 2 and we are working with the City of Reading CityPark Greenhouse Urban Agriculture.

Our team consists of McKenna Greener, Caitlin Morris, Sara Saraceni, and Rachel Dinger.  McKenna and Rachel are both fourth year Applied Psychology majors, Caitlin is a freshman, business marketing & management major, and Sara is a freshman, SRA major. We will also be working with Brian Twyman for this project.  We currently don’t have an appointment but will be scheduling one in the near future.  What we are looking forward to most about this project is being able to have a positive impact in our community.

(Will add picture when all groups members are here)

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Haste makes waste, so choose your food wisely!

  By Rishabh Ganesh Shanbhag • January 25, 2018 , , ,

Ninja Turtles starring Rishabh Shanbhag (left), Cori Dickinson (middle), Kathy Giorgi (right) and Lauren Kirby (bottom).

Preface

Welcome to our blog! We are the Ninja Turtles and we are here to save the environment – or at least make an impact! We originally chose to work with the Water Works on a sewer project but have now switched gears to working with the City of Reading City/Park Greenhouse Urban Agriculture Department.

Team Members

My name is Rishabh Shanbhag, I am an international student from Mumbai, India. Currently, I’m a senior at Penn State Berks, majoring in Information Science & Technology (IST) and performing two minors in Business and Security Risk Analysis (SRA). I love learning about new technologies and I’m looking forward to making use of my skills to help make a difference in our environment.

My name is Kathy Giorgi. I am a junior at Penn State Berks and am working towards an RHS degree to work in an advocacy organization to empower marginalized members of society. I am a mom and I am concerned about keeping the planet beautiful for future generations to enjoy.

My name is Lauren Kirby. I am finishing up my junior year at Penn State Berks majoring in Communication Art & Sciences. My current focus is addiction recovery and addiction treatment development. I am striving to do what I can to leave our environment in a better condition than I found it for future generations to flourish.

My name is Cori Dickinson. I am from Pottstown, Pennsylvania. I am a freshman at Penn State Berks, and I am majoring in Elementary Education. I also play softball for the Berks team, and enjoy playing basketball and soccer as well.

Project Description

We will be working closely with Mr. Bryan Twyman to explore the impact of food waste and to integrate creative ideas to help encourage food waste recycling. Learning and implementing food sustainability should be important because it affects everyone. If we constantly leech the nutrients out of the soil, the food we produce will also become less nutritious which can lead to malnutrition even if we are eating well. We also need to be more conscious of what we put on our plate that that never becomes consumed. This contributes to waste in the environment and eventually becomes consumed. This contributes to waste in the environment and eventually becomes harmful to communities. We need to learn not only what is going on but how we can all contribute to alternate the impending issues from food waste. As our title says, haste makes waste, so choose your food wisely!

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Green Power Insider Information

  By Jake William Hamill • January 25, 2018 , , ,

We are team green power. Our members include Matt, Brandon, Nick, and Jake. Nick is a first year student that is majoring in finance. Jake is a second year business major. He is from Collegeville, PA.  Matt is a first year student at Berks that is majoring in Accounting. And Brandon is a senior in Berks majoring in Information Sciences & Technology.

We are working with the city of Reading and are looking forward to working with Brian Twyman to better the environment. We will learn about “new” agriculture and help Brian make a greenhouse. We will also learn about the differences between agriculture and the urban agriculture.

 

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“The Green Team” Research

  By oag5011 • October 20, 2015 , , ,

Today “The Green Team” (Olivia Gaudin, Kevin Negron, George Wringley, Kevin Shung) did research for our EACAP project. When we went to the trail on October 16, 2015, we were appalled by the amount of garbage that littered the Schuylkill River Trail. There was garbage everywhere we turned, along the trail, and near the river and near the bridges near the trail.

 

Bob informed us that the people that maintain the trail are unable to incorporate more garbage cans near the trail because the residents that visit the trail consistently misuse the garbage cans that are made available. This lack of garbage cans also contributes to the amount of waste near the trail, because the people using the trail do not have many places to dispose of their garbage.

 

Research by Keep America Beautiful, Inc. found that people litter because: They feel no sense of ownership, (even though parks are public property) they believe someone else-a park maintenance or highway worker-will pick up after them, or they feel that it is okay to litter because litter has already accumulated.

According to Keep America Beautiful, Inc., litter is a costly problem. Highway departments spend millions of tax dollars and many hours annually picking up litter. This money and time is time that is being taking away from other important services. Local, state, and federal governments also spend money removing litter left by careless park visitors.

Our team will continue to do research, and explore solutions for this litter problem. Decreasing the amount of litter near the trail will greatly help to improve the negative perception of the trail.