Meet our Students: Rebecca Harbage / Community and Regional Planning
What city, region, state do you call home?
Montana
In which graduate program are you enrolled?
Community and Regional Planning
What is your area of concentration?
Environmental Planning
What will you be doing for the Community Service Center (CSC)?
I am currently employed as a Project Coordinator for one of the Community Planning Workshop (CPW) projects. As such, I manage four first-year graduate students in the Community & Regional Planning program. My project focuses on drafting water quality protections for two small Oregon cities, Gold Hill and Oakridge. We will be working with stakeholders and state agency representatives in both cities to draft programs that meet local needs while also satisfying state and federal regulations.
How does your involvement with the Community Service Center relate to or inform your graduate studies?
My work with the Community Service Center directly ties into my interests in environmental planning and planning for the unique challenges faced by small communities.
What can you say about the value of your Community Service Center experience?
Working with the CSC has been an invaluable part of my graduate studies. As a student in CPW last year, the CSC made it possible to get hands-on experience in my field of interest while continuing to learn and improve upon important skill sets in the safety of the classroom. In addition, this second year with the CSC affords me the opportunity to develop real world project management skills. I appreciate the value these experiences will have as I approach the looming transition out of academia and back into the job market.
What outcome are you hoping for when your project ends?
This question really has two parts. Personally, I hope to use my experience to get a job when my project ends. For the project specifically, I hope that the two communities will have workable water quality programs that they are excited to adopt and implement. I also hope the project will be a valuable example of how regulatory agencies and the university can work together to assist under-resourced communities.
More about the Community Planning Workshop(CPW)