Shameless Boyfriend Bragging

When Mom suggested that I use the blog as a forum for a Jeremy brag-a-thon, I was only to happy to oblige! Jeremy is formally graduating on May 9th - he finished classes and received his diploma last December, but on the 9th he walks across the stage in a funny hat and gets presented an award by President Sexton, and I'm just so proud of all his achievements in the past year...and I want all of you to know how cool he is!

Over the past two years, Jeremy has, more or less singlehandedly, fostered environmental awareness at NYU - first by founding GreenArch, a coalition of students, faculty and administrators dedicated to University sustainability. Additionally, GreenArch served as a much-needed locus for networking professors and administrators with environmental goals across the whole univeristy. Next, through GreenArch, Jeremy advocated for the existance of an Environmental Studies major in the College of Arts and Sciences, where none previously existed; the major is set to be avaiable to students this fall. Finally, he conducted a two-semester in-depth study of the university's environmental impacts (keep in mind that NYU has more than 100 buildings, a huge transportation fleet, its own power plant, its own recycling center, and a population in excess of 50,000 people), culminating in a fantastic report (which can be viewed here). He gave dynamic presentations of this report to hundreds of people on dozens of occasions during his last months as a student. The awareness he raised led the university to make the biggest university wind power purchase in the world, and the 11th biggest in history. Many other sustainable practices are in the works, ranging from greenroofing to CFL lighting to LEED certified construction and renovation. NYU also collaborated with Jeremy to create the Sustainability Task Force, a team of 50 administrators, faculty, and students dedicated to designing and implementing a Green Action Plan.

Along the way, he earned the Morris K. Udall Foundation federal scholarship for cutest picture ever, I mean, Leadership in Environmental Policy (perks: a trip to Arizona with all the US' great young environmental minds, and a hefty sum), two Presidential Service Awards (one for himself, and one for GreenArch), and a Gallatin Special Service Award. He also managed to graduate with honors and a degree in Environmental Values and Public Policy.

When the university realized he was graduating, and that they were about to lose their most valuable environemtnal activist and indispensible cross-campus networker, they created a position for him and hired him on as head of the Sustainability Task Force. In his first six weeks, he has been responsible for allocating significant funds to his choice of environmental projects! Not only that, but Jeremy was featured in the alumni magazine "Gallatin Today" (you can read the feature here), and will be featured in this May's Brownstone, the Washington Square magazine, as on the the top twenty most influential people on campus. There will be an exceptionally snazzy picture. =)

So that's my killer boyfriend, people. He also sweeps the kitchen and irons his own shirts. Woohoo!

Shamelessly plugging,
Kate