College Student Finds his Way Forward with GreenWorks

We often meet volunteers for just a single project, and don’t have the opportunity to see the impact joining alongside GreenWorks has on them. A year ago, we met Devin, and just recently he shared about the impact volunteering with GreenWorks has had on the course of his life. 

 Devin on a roadside cleanup during his Alternate Spring Break trip to Asheville. Photo courtesy of Devin Christopherson.

I started at Auburn University as a physics major, but I was taken aback by the small amount of opportunity I saw. I didn’t think that I would be able to do anything with physics that would help anybody. 

Meanwhile, in my other science classes at the Honors College, I grew to appreciate our local biodiversity. I was in awe of the incredible variety of species that exist because of what they have evolved into.

At the time, I was pretty uncertain of which direction I wanted to go, and I  signed up to come on an alternative break trip to Asheville just as a fun fall break activity. 

I wasn’t looking for something to inspire me, but GreenWorks and that trip to Asheville was the catalyst for everything.

Our first day, we saw how GreenWorks is engaging the community in preserving local biodiversity on a large scale. It was a eureka moment for me. 

I saw a community taking action to preserve the beauty of a place so that the people who come after you can experience and enjoy it too. I hadn’t seen a community organization do that before, especially in an urban or suburban environment.

Then our group talked with Eric about the Trash Trouts, and we got a chance to do a roadside cleanup. 

I saw that stormwater runoff from roads was the largest source of pollution in our watersheds, but I didn’t see any solutions. I wanted to learn more to hopefully be able to come with a solution. 

When I got home, I started looking for ways to preserve the native biodiversity in Alabama. I changed my major to civil and environmental engineering, and I got a summer internship with a firm installing wetland mitigation banks throughout Alabama. 

One of my projects was Pipe Road, this rural-turning-suburban area, where a large farm was being developed into strip malls and apartment complexes.  

I had the opportunity to go out and delineate the wetland boundary and to work on creating a protection area. It was small, but it me made me feel l’d accomplished something that actually helped. 

After that, I got really involved with hydrology at the stormwater research facility here at Auburn. I’ve been doing flow tests and runoff experiments, and next I want to pursue a project with bog gardens, which are stormwater mitigation areas that mimic wetland or delta environments and are filled with plant species that can take up heavy metals from roadside stormwater runoff.

It’s been a staircase of getting more and more focused on what I want to be doing, and GreenWorks was the first step for me.

Paying it forward

We appreciate Devin so much for his dedication to improving water quality here and at home, and for sharing his story with us!   

Devin reminded me of what makes this community unique: 

We inspire each other to go big on solutions to some of our most challenging environmental problems, and together we are capable of doing things that we cannot accomplish alone. 

We're so grateful to be able to provide guided alternative break experiences for college students from across the country, but we couldn't do it without the support of this dedicated community. 

Will you give a gift today to enable us to engage more volunteer groups in community-led environmental preservation and restoration projects that inspire more environmental superheroes like Devin to take action?