We are excited to introduce our 2022 summer interns! Our summer intern program is now in its 5th year and we are delighted to welcome our interns - Ellie El-Fishawy, Farida Abdelhak, Naina Srivastava and Hannah Cushing.
Farida and Ellie will be working on the 500 Trees Campaign to help prepare for future tree plantings and help the city of Los Altos create a Tree Planting Master Plan in support of its Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP). Of course this impacts us all given per the USDA, "one large tree can provide a day's supply of oxygen for up to four people. Trees also store carbon dioxide in their fibers helping to clean the air and reduce the negative effects that this CO2 could have had on our environment."
Naina and Hannah will be working on Drought Tolerant Landscaping to develop resources to help influence and support homeowners in the community to transform their lawns to drought-tolerant landscaping. They will be writing a case-study on what it takes to transform lawns and gardens to drought-tolerant landscapes. Given our current drought, minimizing or eliminating watering will benefit us all.
Ellie El-Fishawy
Hello! I am Ellie El-Fishawy, a rising senior at Menlo School. I am so excited to be a part of GreenTown, specifically the 500 Trees Campaign. I have always cared deeply for the environment and now more than ever is an important time to enact positive, tangible change. Last summer I interned at Grassroots Ecology, and am looking forward to tackling a similar issue through a different avenue. Outside of school I love to play soccer competitively. I recently started a project that combined my passion for the environment and soccer. The project, RePlay, works to help combat excessive waste in fashion, more specifically in sports. It does so through the redistribution of unused sports uniforms to under-resourced teams whilst recycling unusable, or single uniforms to repurposing and recycling programs. So far we have collected around 400 lbs of uniforms! Through this internship I really hope to get people to care just as much about the state of our planet. Some fun facts about me are that I love poetry, playing the guitar, and my favorite book is Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson.
Farida Abdelhak
Hello! I am Farida, a rising Junior at Los Altos High School. Growing up I was introduced to environmental issues through my science classes with a underlining dim tone. It was not until my freshman year of High School when I discovered Green Team, LAHS’s environmental club, that I got more involved in environmental activism. It gave me a platform to direct my desires of creating a safer world and avoid an existential crisis! I mainly worked on the Food Waste project my freshman year and went on to leading it in my Sophomore year. Through Green Team, I learned about Grassroots Ecology which I partook in a stewardship program with. Since my family don’t generally engage in outdoor activities, stewarding was my way of spending time in nature which I found therapeutic. A few facts about me: My favorite plant is the Cleveland Sage because it has a beautiful smell and I love the color purple. My favorite book is Night because it gives a raw perspective into the reality of the Holocaust while also portraying a story of self-discovery the average person can relate to.
Naina Srivastava
Hi, my name is Naina and I'm a rising senior at Mountain View High School. I've always been really interested in the environment; when I was younger I'd often go camping and hiking with my family. Nowadays, it's hard to find the time to do all of that, but I've been able to explore my interest in the subject further through my extracurriculars and the AP Environmental Science class, which I took last year. In my free time, I'm usually typing away on a Google Doc, aka writing articles for The Oracle, my school newspaper, and the Midpeninsula Post, an independent student newspaper, both of which I'm the editor-in-chief.
Hannah Cushing
Hello there, I’m Hannah! As a rising senior at Saint Francis High School, I am so excited to be interning for GreenTown. For as long as I can remember, caring for the environment has been really important to me. I’ve grown up hiking and have scaled peaks from Lake Tahoe to Northern Italy. I’ve enjoyed learning to identify native flora and fauna wherever I go and am always amazed at the biodiversity that exists all around us. I also enjoy sea kayaking, especially when I get to see sea otters. I am so appreciative of being able to work on GreenTown’s drought-tolerant landscaping projects and hope that my work raises community awareness. Outside of school, I play competitive softball and relish spending time with my friends and my high-energy German Shorthaired Pointer, Percy.