Recent Tufts graduate Adrian Dahlin (LA '11) today launched GreenLink, an online portal designed to connect students with study abroad programs, internships and entry−level jobs within the environmental sector.
The website, GreenLinkTufts.com, is a searchable database that serves to link young people and the many opportunities that the environmental field has to offer, Dahlin explained.
"[GreenLink will be] helpful for students who want to study abroad and get live, active experience in environmental organizations," Ann Greaney−Williams, program coordinator of the Environmental Studies program for the Tufts Institute of the Environment (TIE), said. "[It] will help people with the development of their careers."
Dahlin created GreenLink after completing an internship at an environmental NGO in Israel and Palestine, which prompted him to consider ways to assist other students in finding similar opportunities.
"When it comes to the environmental issues of our global community, traveling abroad greatly [helped] me understand the global nature of some of those environmental challenges," he said. "So I want to try to help students get abroad."
Dahlin received funds to bring his idea to fruition from the Compton Foundation Mentor Fellowship in 2011.
He hopes GreenLink will be a valuable resource for students and recent graduates who want to get involved in the environmental movement yet are unsure how to do so optimizing their individual talents.
"Part of the purpose of studying abroad and doing internships is to help students figure out what they're good at and what they want to do," he said. "The idea is that we're trying to attract a wide variety of people. There are a lot of different kinds of jobs in the environmental sector that require different expertise and college majors."
The site allows students to search the database specifying a location and area of interest, according to Dahlin.
"Our goal, what we really want to accomplish, is to produce results to student searches that match up to their interests," junior Samantha Tye, a GreenLink intern, said.
The site also includes a comprehensive rating system that monitors the quality of study abroad programs, internship and job opportunities.
"People who have done those study abroad programs or those internships will be able to go back and submit a written review and a numeric rating," Dahlin said. "That way the site will help direct students to the better quality programs, as determined by their peers."
The site will also host a blog, featuring content from environmentalists covering topics ranging from study abroad stories to career advice, Tye said.
Anyone can contribute to the blog, Dahlin added. With both regular and guest contributors, he hopes it will be the ultimate destination for sharing ideas and engaging in discussions about the environment.
"We want it to feel like a community for these students," Tye said.
The GreenLink team is looking to expand their service from Tufts to the rest of New England by next semester, Dahlin said, and hopes to go nationwide soon after.
"I think it's special because we're doing this for the students that need it," Tye said. "We want to provide a resource that isn't there. We take big strides every week, and it's really cool to see that develop."
