 The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) has played an integral part in the development of students in the Environmental Justice (EJ) arena through its EJ Interns Program and the employment of graduate assistants and student assistants. The DSCEJ seeks to involve students in many aspects of its community outreach and research. In an effort to make students more aware of the environmental justice arena, students are invited to receive hands-on experience by immersing themselves in community environmental problems and working to solve these problems.
Students employed at the DSCEJ have an opportunity to attend meetings and get involved in specific projects such as health surveys, workshops, the annual EJ Symposiums, other professional meetings and the Students for Environmental Justice Club (SEJC). These students learn about EJ issues in general and specifically about the plight of community residents most severely impacted by the struggle.
 Environmental Justice and Environmental Sustainability are two of the most important tenets of the work conducted at the DSCEJ, and those tenets lay the foundation for all Center activities. Providing financial support for students is overshadowed by a desire to foster their professional development. As a result, student participation in professional meetings has been funded each year. Many of the EJ Interns have become environmental professionals, including two who are environmental lawyers, one who works for the Environmental Protection Agency and one who is currently enrolled in graduate school at the University of California at Davis in environmental studies. One of our former student interns was featured in the September 2006 issue of “Seventeen” magazine for her work in environmental justice.
The Students for Environmental Justice Club (SEJC) along with the Melton Foundation Scholars launched the “Recycle Madness” Recycling Campaign in March 2008 on Dillard University’s campus. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, storm debris and waste continue to fill landfills throughout the metro New Orleans area. We must become proactive in helping to reduce waste to protect our environment and conserve energy. Waste reduction can begin on a small scale for improvements to be achieved. Our recycling initiative began with paper and will expand to plastics and beyond in the fall. Since the recycling campaign was launched in March, over 1,400 lbs of paper has been recycled. The students, faculty, and administration at Dillard University are making many strides to rebuild its beautiful and historic campus in an environmentally friendly way.
 The DSCEJ sponsors activities to enhance environmental justice awareness. Workshops and seminars are held to promote the infusion of sustainability and equity, to develop a comprehensive student-focused project with faculty and staff participation, to introduce sustainability and equity concepts to students by students and to integrate community outreach and support initiatives into program activities.
Activities designed to accomplish these goals include:
- Toxic Tours
- Topical Seminars
- Primary and Secondary Environmental Education
- Community Workshops and Seminars
- Campus Sustainability Recycling Program
STUDENT ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES
The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice has officially established the “Students for Environmental Justice Club” on Dillard University’s campus. Plans are underway to initiate several activities that emphasize education awareness in environmental justice, recycling, clean production, green building, and global warming:
- We will implement a series of brown bag lunch sessions on environmental justice, clean production, and global warming in Louisiana.
- We will disseminate brochures and fact sheets concerning environmental issues.
- We will develop a Clean Production Corps that will include students from local colleges (Dillard University, Xavier University of Louisiana, Southern University at New Orleans, Tulane University, and Loyola University of New Orleans) who will be trained with community residents in clean production and who will subsequently conduct training sessions for other students at the campuses.
STUDENTS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE CLUB
Purpose 
- To increase environmental justice awareness at Dillard University and its surrounding communities.
- To encourage environmental justice education and solutions to problems facing communities of color who bear the brunt of disproportionate exposure.
- To provide motivational lectures and inform students about careers in higher education in the environmental sciences and scholarship/research opportunities at the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice.
Membership
Any person(s) desiring to be supportive of activities pertaining to the Students for Environmental Justice Club (SEJC) is eligible for membership. The SEJC falls under the umbrella of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and is therefore subject to its approval for business decisions, policies, and procedure affecting university policies and standards.
Eligibility
- A full time or part time student at Dillard University.
- No university sanctions (academic or disciplinary).
- Sincere interest in participating in the activities of the Students for Environmental Justice Club.
- Cumulative GPA of at least 2.5.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE INTERN FEATURE STORIES
Former Environmental Justice Intern Brittany Cochran testified before Congressman Ed Markey, Chair of the  House Select Committee on Global Warming. She shared her testimony of increased hurricane activity in New Orleans due to global warming and how Hurricane Katrina devastated her college campus, family, and community (November 2 – 5, 2007).
 Former DSCEJ Environmental Justice Intern, Brittany Cochran was featured in the September 2006 issue of Seventeen Magazine. Her work with the DSCEJ has given her the passion to share her knowledge about the devastating impact of global warming. In her interview with Seventeen Magazine Brittany quoted “I’ from a rural area in Louisiana where everybody’s poor. When you went to school, they’d say if you got good grades, you might be able to get a good job at one of the chemical plants in town but they never told us how those factories are poisoning our earth or that they’re the reason why our parents and grandparents have cancer. They never told us the truth. That is what I’m setting out to do. Having a healthy place t live isn’t a privilege…it’s a right.”
 Former Environmental Justice Intern, Melony Lewis, from Memphis, TN was a part of a ten person team to travel with the environmental group Greenpeace to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa August 26, 2001. The WSSD had close to 60,000 government leaders, national delegates, businessmen, non-governmental organizations, and concerned activists. They discussed ways to preserve our natural resources, and look for solutions to some of the biggest problems facing the earth, such as global warming and economic security. Melony petitioned for clean energy options and to persuade governments to resist pressure from big corporations.
“Using clean energy is Important because it will allow for the present generations to insure that our future generations have accessible energy and allow millions of people now to have new access to energy.”
Melony, along with other young activists, participated in solar power demonstration projects, as well as, took part in lobbying the U.S. delegation to support clean energy solutions. The team met with U.S. Congressional leaders at a Global Forum press event. The main goal of their journey was to show support for developing nations in their quest to find clean energy solutions.
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