Duwamish Valley Youth Corps Visit the UW SRP

 

UW SRP Research Translation and Community Engagement Cores (RTC/CEC) recently welcomed two new cohorts of middle school students enrolled in the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps (DVYC) to the UW campus. The DVYC program is overseen by the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition/Technical Advisory Group (DRCC/TAG), which is the official EPA advisory group for cleanup of the Lower Duwamish Waterway (LDW) Superfund site. The program engages local teens in place-based education and community participation that also provides tangible outcomes and improvements for their neighborhoods. Paulina Lopez is the DRCC/TAG Community Engagement and Outreach Manager. She and Carmen Martinez (DVYC Leader) oversee curriculum implementation and activities for the 12-week program. The DVYC students are residents of South Park and Georgetown neighborhoods which are adjacent to the Superfund site. In their educational program, participants learn about the history of the Duwamish River, storm water runoff and the ecological health of the river, as well as issues related to environmental justice and the intersection between the environment and human health. The youth do cleanup projects on public trails and local parks, reinforcing the value of being custodians of their natural resources. RTC and CEC staff provided a range of activities for the students when they visited the campus. Activities focused on concepts such as exposure, dose, risk and individual susceptibility with a focus on protecting human health by reducing exposure. The content dovetails with the DVYC curriculum that emphasizes mindfulness and protecting the environment and human health. Kevin Heffren, a Master’s Degree candidate and SRP trainee, led students on a laboratory tour and described his research on olfactory toxicity in fish due to cadmium exposure. The youth used high power microscopes in the fish lab and were able to see the visible effects of cadmium on developmental changes in living fish embryos. The participants also had the opportunity to visit with Hao Wang, a PhD Degree candidate and SRP trainee to discuss his research on the impact of cadmium on brain development.

 

For DVYC leaders, an important component of the UW visit is the opportunity for DVYC participants to meet with undergraduate student ambassadors. UW undergraduate students Maricarmen Garcia and Zulen Pantoja spoke with the youth about their own experiences as first-generation college students and responded to a range of questions. The fieldtrips concluded with a campus tour led by Lovely Domingo from the UW Information School. Lovely is a college graduate and current UW staff member who had worked in the Lower Duwamish neighborhoods years ago. She has kept her ties with the community and has volunteered over the years at DRCC/TAG led events. Future visits to the UW campus are being planned for the fall of this year.