Our 2012 Wofford January-term interns Rachel Brittanham and Eric Breitenstein did a superb job creating a plan for increasing game-day recycling for football and basketball contests at the college. The two environmental studies majors are also both star athletes in basketball and football, respectively. Thank you, Rachel and Eric, and Go Terriers!

(2010) During his first year of law school at the University of South Carolina, Shea Airey learned about conservation easements, which help protect critical lands and habitat through agreements between private landowners and land trust organizations.  “As I wanted to learn more about this legal tool from a highly-experienced group and desired to live in the beautiful Upstate area after graduation, Upstate Forever was a natural fit for a summer internship,” he says.     

Shea spent the summer of 2007 working with our Land Trust program.  “The experience brought me great insight into the role and importance of the nonprofit organization in modern land conservation.  I also learned the mechanics of conservation easement transactions and the excitement involved in protecting wonderful natural resources like Stumphouse Mountain. And I gained some fantastic friends and associates.”

Shea used his summer internship experience as the basis for a paper entitled “Conservation Easements in Private Practice: A Detailed Overview of the Device and Why It Should Be Embraced by the American Lawyer.”  The paper won first place in the American Bar Association’s 2009-10 Real Property/Trust & Estate Law Student Writing Contest. After graduating in May, 2009, Shea and his wife, Elizabeth, settled in Oconee County, where he practices estate planning, real estate and of course land conservation law.

(2009) Elizabeth Pandolfi interned at Upstate Forever during the summer of 2004, after her sophomore year at Davidson College.  After graduating with a degree in English, she settled in Charleston, where she worked in marketing and public relations for the I’On Group, a new urban development firm, and is currently a publicist for an environmental publishing company and a freelance writer.

Elizabeth says, “I gained so much from my experience at Upstate Forever!  First of all, I learned a great deal about the practical ins and outs of conservation.  The staff put so much trust in me, and really allowed me to delve into the aspects that interested me the most, like creating conservation easements, urban tree ordinances, and greener development.  Upstate Forever is also where I first heard the term ‘New Urbanism,’ which was a major help to me when I went to work for the I'On Group!”

(2009) Lark Wells interned at Upstate Forever during her senior year at Furman from the summer of 2004 through the summer of 2005.  After graduation, she found work as an environmental communications specialist at the Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG) in Arlington, VA.  ERG is a government contractor which works with the U.S. EPA on many of their voluntary partnership programs.

Lark says, “Through my internship with the Saluda-Reedy Watershed Consortium, I knew I wanted to continue working in the environmental field, and my background in water issues landed me a spot on one of our biggest projects at ERG: EPA's WaterSense program.  For this program, I communicate with our partners to spread an ethic of water efficiency and encourage the use of water-efficient products. My internship not only gave me the skills I've needed to succeed at my job but it also developed my interest in working with others to help make changes that benefit the environment.”

(2007) Meredith Walker had just graduated from Washington and Lee University with a BA in English when she returned home to Greenville for the summer of 2005 to intern with Upstate Forever. She monitored and researched conservation agreements for Upstate Forever’s Land Trust program, assisting with an ultimately successful application for funding to the SC Conservation Bank.

After a stint backpacking through Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji, Meredith relocated to Washington, DC, where she is now Development Coordinator at The Wilderness Society, working with major donors and foundations. She says, “The mission of The Wilderness Society stood out to me immediately, and the staff’s passion and enthusiasm here was contagious, just as it was at Upstate Forever.”

Meredith adds, “During my internship, I learned how important and effective it is to bring several different interest groups together to identify, inventory, and protect our most special places. We may have different ideas about how best to use open spaces, but, as is often the case, clear communication reveals that, in fact, we really share similar concerns.”

(2005) A native of James Island, South Carolina, Hal Frampton worked with Upstate Forever during his junior year at Furman University. As a major in urban studies, political science, and math-economics, Hal was keenly interested in the efficiency of local governments and their role in the economic aspects of growth and land use. He was assigned the daunting task of identifying the more than 100 special service districts in Greenville County, mapping their boundaries and obtaining annual budgets for each. Little did we know how difficult that would be! Hal spent many hours contacting and visiting these districts and researching their operations. His conclusion: “Our system of local government is, to say the least, a hyperfragmented quagmire. No wonder coordination and cooperation are so difficult.”

After graduating from Furman in 2002, Hal spent a year at the National University of Ireland on a George J. Mitchell Scholarship and earned a masters degree in geography. He is currently in his third year of Yale Law School and hopes to return to his home state one day to work on smart growth issues.

(2005) Our very first intern was Katie Dunson, a Spartanburg native who worked here during the winter term of 1999 while a senior at Furman University.

After graduating from Furman, Katie obtained her law degree from the University of South Carolina and now works with the Gallivan, White & Boyd law firm in Greenville where she concentrates in administrative law. She married David Phipps in 2005.

Of her time with us, Katie says, “It was a great experience. I learned how important it is for us to protect our natural resources and plan for growth.”