Camille Pajor ’09: Making Every Day Earth Day

By Bonnie Eissner

In the States, going green is all the rage. Recycling bins and energy-saving initiatives are now standard in most organizations and many homes. Yet, while many may casually toss their soda can into the recycling bin, most of us have yet to go far out of our way for the planet. The few who are really green are passionately, exuberantly so, doing all that they can to express their love for the environment and their excitement to save it.

Take Camille Pajor ’09, for example. Pajor, who spent 27 months in the Ukraine as a Peace Corps volunteer, is now back at her alma mater as a residence hall director. Currently the director of New Hall B, she has embraced her role in residential life, and after serving as director of Chapman Hall, home to Adelphi’s Green Community and Green Council, she wants to bring a new band of students into the green movement.

A hallmark of Pajor’s efforts is the Green and Local Alternative Spring Break that she launched last March. She had heard that students were looking for an affordable and service-oriented way to spend their spring break and seized the opportunity to plan a week of projects, events and discussions focused on going green. The result: 19 students spent five days working at and experiencing different service sites. From a visit to Crossroads Farm just down the road from Adelphi to a cleanup in Central Park, the group covered Long Island and three of the city’s five boroughs.

Biodiversity, conservation, food sources and sustainability were among the topics students touched on. Pajor distributed podcasts, articles and other supplemental materials to spark discussion on the rides to and from service sites. The effect on students is apparent: One student declared an environmental studies minor; another found ways to incorporate what she learned into her elementary education studies; and another discovered her future internship.