By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky – Graciela Martinez can see the forest for the trees. 

Graciela Martinez is working as an intern this year with UK's Office of Sustainability and the Urban Forest Initiative.

Martinez, an Environmental and Sustainability Studies major in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences, is joining several students in a year-long internship through UK’s Office of Sustainability. For her internship, she will be working with UK’s Urban Forest Initiative, which promotes the tree canopy on campus. 

This fall, Martinez said, she’ll be helping run the forest initiative and organize such events as Tree Week, which was in October. Then in the spring, like all interns, she’ll develop an individual project and report on it at an event. 

“I’ll be working on the planning side," said Martinez, who’s from Georgetown.  “I’ll be making sure everything is running smoothly, but then I’ll also be going to events and participating in them, like tree-plantings. I'd be more than happy to help on those events so I can get some hands-on experience.” 

The Office of Sustainability partners with UK’s Student Sustainability Council and other groups to set up paid undergraduate internship opportunities for UK students. Internships run a year. The internships start in mid-August and follow the academic calendar through the end of the spring semester. Interns work with a mentor on supporting a specific sustainability unit on campus and participate in professional development.  

The internship can be a key component of an ENS major in the College.  

 “The ENS program supports students getting hands-on experience, whether through internships, undergraduate research, education abroad, or other opportunities outside of the classroom,” said Lauren E. Cagle, Ph.D., associate professor of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies and ENS chair. “We’re thrilled that so many ENS majors are able to use campus as a living laboratory and make a difference through the UK Sustainability Internship Program.  

Lauren Cagle

”In addition to Martinez, the ENS students doing internships this year are Henry Walke, Holly Cason, Abbey McNely and Georgia McNamara. McNamara, for example, will be working with UK Healthcare to minimize plastic waste in hospitals. Dealing with medical waste can be challenging: Contamination is always a threat. 

“It is very difficult," said McNamara, who’s from Nashville, Tennessee. “But that's why I specifically chose the UK Healthcare internship — it is a challenge. You need to think outside the box to make it sustainable. It is possible, but it is a lot harder than some other projects, just because there are so many rules for types of plastics: things you can and cannot reuse and things you can and cannot recycle.” 

McNamara was drawn to the ENS major because of her background in environmental issues. 

“I've always kind of been aware of the environment,” she said. “My parents raised my brother and me to be always aware of the Earth and to be recycling and doing things in a sustainable way. But I really got into it in high school when I took my AP Environmental Science class, because I never really knew how much there was to do with sustainability and the environment and things like that until high school. That class opened my eyes to it. I was a junior, and I was thinking about college. Kentucky’s ENS program seemed like the perfect major for me.” 

The ENS major offered Martinez a chance to pursue her passion as well. 

"In my first year, I came in as a business student, but soon realized it was not the path I wanted to pursue,” Martinez said. “I felt unfulfilled and I found myself yearning for more. That’s what led to me switching my major to ENS my second year. It allows me to dive deeper into my curiosities and areas of interest. A fundamental moment in my academic journey was when I discovered urban and community forestry through a course. It resonated strongly with my commitment to sustainable development and gave me an inside look on arboriculture throughout campus. I am genuinely excited to continue exploring and expanding my knowledge within my field. “