As part of our Fall Municipal Assistance Program(MAP), UConn students take our Fall Brownfields course, learn all about brownfields, and are grouped into teams and partnered up with entities accepted in the Fall MAP, and TAB staff. During that time, student groups support entities with the EPA Brownfields Grant Application through research and data support of the narrative portion. They learn about specific brownfield sites, assessment and cleanup needs, working with EJSCREEN, and how grant budgets come together. At the end of the semester, the students have a competition-style final presentation where they present what they worked on and are judged by local brownfield experts on how they did.
The final presentations this year were held on December 6th. This year our judges were Mark Lewis, Melina Ambrosino, and Amanda Limacher. We had 10 teams compete – representing entities all throughout New England. 1st place was awarded to our Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments team made up of students Brianna Chasse, Hayley Clos, and Salem Smith! 2nd place was awarded to our Chicopee(MA) team made up of students Nicholas Candow, Justin Lazar, and Jessica Harris. 3rd place was awarded to our Caribou(ME) team made up of students Jack Gogarty and Dylan Steer. Thank you to our judges for coming out and supporting our students and a special thank you to BCONE for sponsoring a scholarship to our 1st place winners!