Hello all!
Let’s start off with a little about me; my name is Rebecca Jalboot, but I prefer to be called Becca. I am a fifth-year Environmental Engineering major with a certificate in Sustainability and will be graduating in May 2025.
Something more personal about me is that in my spare time I love to crochet, watch movies, and read! My favorite genres for both books and movies are mystery, horror, and fantasy (recommendations are always welcome). This summer I wrapped up the final semester of my co-op experience. While on co-op I worked at United States Steel Corporation in the Environmental Department for the Mon Valley Works. The Mon Valley Works is comprised of four plants, three of these plants are located in the Pittsburgh region with the last located in Fairless Hills. As a member of this department, I learned a lot on the metallurgical industry, project management, as well as environmental regulation and compliance with local, state, and federal laws.
For my Sustainability Capstone I am in a group that is part of a larger team at the University of Pittsburgh called the Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative. This project is in the fourth year of a ten-year project that utilizes an interdisciplinary approach. The larger group is made up of students and faculty from sustainability, engineering, urban studies, business, and political science disciplines. Each year the new student cohorts help address the overall topic of economic and sustainable development in the Appalachian region, specifically focusing on Fayette County. We are working to address the question:
“How do we support economic growth in a community that will help build a sustainable future and close the socioeconomic gap between Appalachia and the rest of the nation?”
This semester our key stakeholders are Michael Edwards and Dan Cocks of the Fayette County Cultural Trust. However, there is a strong emphasis on the support and communication with community members, so they are also collaborating partners. This project is important to the area because we are working to find methods to combat brain drain and build up the community by building on their existing assets. The solutions this project brings to the community are long lasting and sustainable improvements. Previous semesters’ work has focused on acid mine drainage, website development, pairing local entrepreneurs with digital platforms to develop their businesses, and educating the area while building trust between the community and the University of Pittsburgh group. I hope that this semester’s cohort of students can work to create a deliverable that prioritizes the goals of the Fayette County Cultural Trust. I am a member of the sustainability capstone group made up of myself, Katherine Fazzini, Kelly Nguyen, and Colleen O’Hare Barrows. We are currently focusing our efforts on researching the Keystone Space Collaborative and the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act. Our research in these topics is to determine the feasibility and benefit that these programs can offer to the area. These topics could help bring technology, skills, funding, and experience to the area while encouraging members of the community to stay in the area and develop their skills to improve the area.
My current professional goal post-graduation is to work as an environmental engineer. I would like to work in the water treatment or water management industry. I think that the Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative can help me achieve these goals by expanding my abilities in communication, research, and group work. An important aspect of this project is communication with the community of Fayette County, our stakeholders, and between the cohorts enrolled in the project. Talking with the community and stakeholders helps us define the expectations and needs to ensure our work is valued as well as ensuring we are not overstepping. Communication between cohorts will help make sure we are not duplicating work and to see if we can help each other form connections while enhancing our individual focuses. Research is fundamental to any project and our research is currently focusing on the Keystone Space Collaborative to learn how their efforts of enhancing space technology in the Ohio-Pennsylvania-West Virginia area may be applied to the Appalachian region. We are also looking into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, specifically focusing on funding in connection with abandoned mine reclamation. Pennsylvania has the most abandoned mines in the country, making it prone to acid mine drainage which can be harmful to the environment and the community surrounding it. The research we are conducting is not only literature review and searching the internet on these topics, but it is also going to include interviewing members of the community and various experts to learn more about these topics. Lastly, group work at various levels is crucial to this project. I am a member of a small group that makes up the larger group of this project. This dynamic is very different from other projects I have worked on in school and during my time at U.S. Steel because it pulls members together from very different backgrounds and expertise. My previous experiences have been with people working in similar areas or from technical and engineering-based expertise.
The students in my sustainability capstone were given six options for the projects we could work on. When reading about these projects I knew I was interested in the Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative because it was unlike many of the other project options. This project was very different from the other projects and is unlike other projects I have worked on during my undergraduate career because of the interdisciplinary approach. Most projects I have participated in are technically focused and engineering oriented so I was interested in working on a project that would get me out of my comfort zone and help me grow. I am hoping that stepping out of my comfort zone will help me in my future career and will help me next semester as I enter my senior design project. This project will allow me to meet new people and form connections with people outside of the typical engineering fields that I work with more often.