Campus Corps Leader of the Week: Sean Cochrane

Introducing Sean Cochrane, Campus Corps leader at Montana Tech of the UM (M-Tech) located in beautiful Butte, MT. Sean boldly made the move to western Montana all the way from Jacksonville, Florida where he recently received his undergraduate degree at Florida State University. The early winter has been quite a shock to this southerner, but Sean surprisingly seems to be adjusting to the Montana weather with relative ease. In fact, he has even cited the cooler climate as one of the things he was most looking forward in relocating to the Northwest. Adapting to new places is something that Sean has plenty of experience with; having grown up with a father in the Navy, his family grew accustomed to moving around rather frequently and found many different places to call home.

Although Sean ended up in Butte mostly by chance, the town seems to be a perfect fit for him. Sean is by nature a history buff and has found himself lucky to be in what many would consider Montana's most historically significant city. Sean has enjoyed having the opportunity to learn about the rich history of the town that was once referred to as "The Richest Hill on Earth" due to its abundance of copper deposits that drew people from all over the country and beyond. Furthermore, with Irish in his blood Sean's favorite holiday has always been St. Patrick’s Day, and fittingly enough, Butte just so happens to be home to Montana's biggest St. Patty's Day celebration. There's the luck of the Irish for you!

In his undergraduate studies Sean majored in History and plans to further his education next year by attending Law School at the University of Virginia.  As you can probably guess from the photo above of Sean and his sister on the Dallas Cowboy's field, Sean is a big sports fan. During football season you can find him rooting for the Dallas Cowboys and in college ball for his alma mater, the Florida State Seminoles.

UM-Western Goes Green for America Recycles Day

Campus Corps members serving in Dillon, MT rallied their campus and nearby community on Tuesday November 15th to celebrate of America Recycles Day.  The team worked to inform students about the campus' recycling options and utilized many creative methods to achieve this including visiting classes and dumpster diving the room's garbage can from which participants sorted out the recyclable waste that had been wrongfully placed in the trash.  Furthermore, members stationed themselves in the highly trafficked pathways in between classes to get the word out while giving away free pins and bookmarks.

The day of events continued with the plastic and can crushing competition during which students were challenged to see who could crush the most recyclables in a set amount of time, and in doing so prepared the items to begin the recycling process.  At 6pm UM-W students, faculty, staff, as well as members of the Dillon community flocked to campus to view the screening of "Bag It": a documentary on the harmful effects that plastic bags have upon the environment.  Before beginning the film, the audience had the opportunity hear from a Patagonia representatives who demonstrated how their company reuses plastic bags to make material for their clothing (as was used to make the shirt Cheyanne is wearing in the photo above!!).

The success of the day long event serves as a tribute to the effectiveness of the campus's recent efforts both to become more sustainable and to raise the community's awareness of important environmental issues.  Just since the beginning of this school year, the campus has seen major advances in these initiatives and such can be attributed to the group of passionate and dedicated volunteers devoted to the cause!

Campus Corps member Mandy created a dress out of 500 plastic bags - the number of bags an average person uses over the course of one year. Check it out!

Campus Corps Members to Honor Veterans in Bozeman

In honor of the national Veteran's Day holiday, the newly established Student Veteran's Club on the campus of MSU will be hosting several events throughout the Bozeman community to honor the men and women that have served in our country's armed forces. MSU's campus will be hosting an all day ceremony during which volunteers will read aloud the names of more than 6,200 veterans whose lives have been lost in the wars in Afganistan and Iraq since 2001.  The event is part of a larger nationwide Remembrance Day National Roll Call in which 182 colleges from all 50 states are taking part.

Campus Corps leaders T.C. Knutson and Sean Cochrane , from MSU-GF and M-Tech respectively, will be making the trip out to Bozeman to take part in the event. The ceremony will be taking place from 9am to 5pm in the Leigh Lounge in the Strand Union Building on MSU's campus. The roll call will conclude at 4pm with a remembrance ceremony during which the audience will hear from keynote speaker U.S. Senator Jon Testor.

To learn more about the event and how you can be involved Click Here.  And for all those who plan to attend, be sure to stop by to say hello to Sean and T.C. who will be stationed at the AmeriCorps table.