The Orbis

Issue date: 1/29/08 Section: News/Features

Janka speaks about a proposed environmental initiative at an outdoor Iowa rally.

Orbis: How did you get involved with the environmental movement, and more specifically, with Green Corps?

Noëlle Janka: It's funny- I was never a big environmentalist while I was at Vandy but while working on the 2004 election with the Vanderbilt Progressive Student Union and then on the Living Wage campaign with LIVE, I learned that I loved organizing. There is nothing more thrilling to me than a group of people coming together to change what seems unchangeable- whether it's poverty wages or the rapid onslaught of global climate change.

While in school, I knew I wanted to work on grassroots campaigns but I had a really hard time finding jobs that appealed to me before I heard about Green Corps. Their non-profit, field school offers a year-long, paid training program that trains recent college grads how to run and win grassroots campaigns by having them actually run them. Green Corps participants receive eight weeks of classroom training and the rest of the time is spent out in the field, working with top political and environmental organizations all over the country.

When I learned that I could get paid to learn how to win campaigns I was sold, and I quickly realized just how much environmental issues relate to social justice, foreign policy and just about everything else I cared about.



O: Can you tell me a little about what Green Corps is, what they hope to get accomplished, and what their strategy is for achieving those goals? And do you, as a relatively new employee, get any input in determining these things?

NJ: Green Corps' mission is to train young people to be effective leaders and change-agents in the environmental and wider progressive movement. I must say they've been pretty successful, as there are now Green Corps graduates in the highest leadership positions in almost all the premier environmental groups like Sierra Club, Forest Ethics and Green Peace. And - this is my favorite bragging point - Adam Reuben, one of the founders of MoveOn.org is a graduate of Green Corps.

As a member of the 2008 Green Corps class, I help with both fund raising and recruitment for the organization but I also get to participate in some of the planning for the future of Green Corps.



O: What about your time at Vanderbilt has been useful to you now that you are a grassroots organizer at Green Corps?

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools