Water Conservation Project

“Mary-Catherine Burton impresses me as a very bright, mature, and highly-motivated student. Her project demonstrates great initiative, and she clearly has the leadership and organizational skills to accomplish her objectives. She also has significant skills in research and evaluation, from her work as Research Director for the USC Advertising Team, and she is building on those skills as she learns more about community-based social marketing.

Mary-Catherine first came to the Green Quad last fall, looking for allies in her campaign to reduce water consumption on campus. Initially she worked primarily with Jason Craig, my Assistant Director for the Green Quad Learning Center for Sustainable Futures. When she learned of the potential for support from the Magellan Scholar Fund, I became more involved in developing a proposal with her. She has been an excellent collaborator, very responsible and very receptive to suggestions for further research and additional revisions.

I am impressed that her motivation for this project stemmed from her study-abroad experience at the University of Newcastle in Australia. This certainly reinforces my emphasis, as the Faculty Principal for the Green Quad, of the importance of exposing students to new environments, whether it is field trips, trips to student conferences, community service, or study abroad.”