Meet our Students: Scarlett Philibosian
Community and Regional Planning
What city, region, state do you call home?
Pasadena, CA
In which graduate program are you enrolled?
Community and Regional Planning
What is your area of concentration?
My area of concentration is environmental planning, and I’m hoping to focus on ecosystem services. I would like to learn the ideologies and analyses behind valuing the services that healthy ecosystems provide to communities. I am interested in how planners can easily find or accurately calculate these values, and use the information to make good planning decisions.
What will you be doing for the Community Service Center (CSC)?
Through the CSC, my Community Planning Workshop(CPW) team is designing a local outreach and communication strategy that encourages private landowners to participate in a payment for ecosystem services program. This program will be headed by the Eugene Water & Electric Board(EWEB), who seeks to maintain water quality along the McKenzie River in the face of increasing development. This project, the Voluntary Incentive Program, would reward good stewardship of riparian land as payment for the ecosystem service of higher water quality provided by that piece of land. My team is also drafting the administration for this natural capital payment program, including outreach, monitoring, and funding. The program will be based in transparency, financial soundness, environmental quality, and efficiency.
How does your involvement with the Community Service Center relate to or inform your graduate studies?
All CPW projects help develop professional skills. I am lucky in that my CPW project is also related to my research interest, although the focus of this project is more on administration and outreach of a program than ecosystem valuation itself. This project has led me to lots of ideas and questions about ecosystem services and community planning in general.
What can you say about the value of your Community Service Center experience?
The CPW program within the CSC helps me build many skills that will be are applicable to a career after graduate school–presentation skills, professional writing development, practice in mediation and facilitating meetings, and experience in juggling many different responsibilities at the same time!
What outcome are you hoping for when your project ends?
Over the next several months, my team will help the Program take shape. Ultimately, my CPW team will deliver a final presentation and report to our client, EWEB. The report will include a partnership strategy among the different NGOs and government agencies that can assume part of the program’s administration. The CPW team is also meeting with an advisory council made up of landowners along the McKenzie. From my team’s facilitation of these meetings, EWEB will better understand the expectations of the community, such as who can participate in the Voluntary Incentive Program, and the minimum acceptable reward for good land stewardship. Our team’s hope is that the information we uncover about partner roles and community participation will reveal the program to be financially feasible and environmentally effective.
LinkedIn Profile Address: Scarlett Philibosian @ Linkedin
More about the Community Planning Workshop(CPW)
