Welcome our Fall 2015 Interns!
We are happy to have these four new interns to our Green Light Family! Read about where they come from and why they wanted to work with us.
Liz Trahan – Grant Writing/Fundraising Intern
Liz is a senior study UNO majoring in English and Philosophy and specializing in Journalism and Environmental Ethics. She has been active with Green Light New Orleans since 2012, starting as a volunteer and moving up to a goal intern where she installed CFL
lights into residents homes. Now, she is a part of the fundraising team and is a grant writer – something she wants to do in the future. Liz has been a tree hugger since age seven and has an extremely impressive past. She has a history of writing grants for nonprofits, worked with the Audubon Zoo, worked on Katrina restoration and has worked on numerous churches and community projects. Liz is a hard core environmentalist, loves mustard greens and dreams of a day where every citizen in New Orleans actively composts and recycles.
Mia Rodriguez – Grant Writing/Fundraising Intern
Mia Rodriguez is new to New Orleans – she just moved here from Michigan to join our team! Mia graduated from the University of Toledo with a degree in literature. She used to work as a free lance editor (and blogger) and wrote blog posts for various nonprofits. Mia was looking for an opportunity to grant write for nonprofits and an opportunity to move. So when she heard about GLNO from a friend, read its mission and saw that they needed a grant writing intern, her obvious move was to pack her bags and head down to the Big Easy. Mia has extensive gardening experience – she has woofed in Costa Rica and Panama and worked on a farm in Michigan. She loves almost everything about gardening – even weeding. What’s in her future? Mia would love to be a professional grant writer, especially if its for a cool nonprofit like Green Light New Orleans. We are glad to have her as a part of the team!
Edie Hopkins – Social Media Intern
Edie is from Takoma Park, Maryland – a small hippie town right outside of Washington DC. Edie is a senior at Tulane University studying Business Management with minors in Public Health and Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship. Edie hopes to someday run her own nonprofit or socially responsible business, focusing on education or health. She is very excited to learn more about the inner workings of a nonprofit through Green Light New Orleans. Her Dad taught her how to garden as a two year old and she has loved it ever since – she hopes to someday live in a climate where she can grow avocados and watermelon, two of her favorite things. Edie has also interned at Youth Run NOLA (a New Orleans nonprofit) and owns a business running summer swim camps in Maryland. Look out for her Facebook Posts, Tweets and Instagrams! #GreenLightIntern
Alice Kuo —Fundraising Intern
Alice traveled the furthest to work with us here at Green Light New Orleans. Alice was born and raised in Taichung, Taiwan. There, she studied Health Care Administration at Asia University and worked in a teaching hospital as the project manager. As an undergrad in 2010 she was an exchange student at Tulane University, and loved New Orleans so much that she came back to get her Masters in Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences. Alice interned at Louisiana’s Bureau of Family Health where she focused on maternal and child health and community outreach. Alice wants to continue to do work with health education and communication. At Green Light New Orleans she hopes to learn about fundraising and the environmental issues. Although Alice loves the culture here in New Orleans, she misses her garden in Taiwan – since she lives in an apartment downtown with no yard space she can only grow green onions because they require little sun. She also misses all of the mangos that grow in Taiwan. That being said, Alice is loving her time here in New Orleans – she considers herself a Bread Pudding connoisseur and has tried it at almost every restaurant downtown (her favorite so far is the one at Mother’s). Alice’s current favorite vegetable is Okra – try preparing it how she does: boil, chop, and then add sesame oil and soy sauce (and garlic if you like that!).