Ecological Society of America

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2008 SEEDS CHAPTER OF THE YEAR!

University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras’ SEEDS Chapter: Amá,Ké,Kachi,Ará (AKKA)

The Ecological Society of America’s SEEDS program announces with great pride and honor, the recipients of the 2008 Chapter of the Year Award: The University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras’ SEEDS Chapter, AKKA.   AKKA has worked extremely hard for all of the successes that have earned them the Chapter of the Year Award.  We are all very proud of AKKA and look forward to a bright future with them as our SEEDS Chapter Leaders!
Below are AKKA’s chapter mission and its fascinating history, in the words of AKKA chapter members Manuel Sanfiorenzo De Orbeta and Colibrí Sanfiorenzo-Barnhard:

Chapter Mission

AKKA SEEDS main mission is to promote scientific research through ecology and its applications.  Our Chapter emphasizes the importance of science and the scientific method in everyday life.   We also emphasize the importance of trans-disciplinary fields of study, which include the natural science, the humanities, education and the social sciences.  In addition, AKKA promotes the personal and academic growth of its members by creating different spaces where they can learn, teach and question life through the integration of their ideas and thoughts about ecology, conservation and the natural world.  For active members this space is by far one of the most attractive aspects of AKKA.

Chapter History

AKKA has had a dense history of success in a short amount of time.  AKKA has had many successes for both the chapter and its members.  We are officially part of the university student organizations, where we have been able to acquire a small office for the use of all our members.  AKKA has created a web page (www.akkaseeds.org) in Spanish that has 103 visits since February 20th.  In this web page we are able to show local and international Spanish speaking people what AKKA SEEDS is all about and the activities that we have done and want to do in the future.  This coming year we hope to translate the web page into English.  We have 15 active members, all of which have an active role in the formation of the chapter.  All our members are doing research in the field of ecology or environmental science.  AKKA has established five main programs which we carry out throughout the year: 1) AKKA Conference Program, 2) Conference/field trip Program, 3) Educational Documentary Program, 4) Community Work Program and 5) Proposal Writing Program.

Our AKKA conference program receives about 20-30 participants per conference, including our active members.  Most of the conferences take place at the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras campus in collaboration with the Graduate Biology Student Association in an activity called BioLunch.  In addition, the AKKA Conference Program has been invited to other UPR campuses (e.g. UPR-Bayamon) and Symposiums (e.g. Urban Ecosystem Symposium of San Patricio Forest).   The Conference/field trip Program was created in an effort to promote AKKA and maintain active involvement of students.  It has grown into a collaborative effort between graduate students and professionals in different field of study.  This program has been instrumental in achieving mentoring at various levels and maintaining active membership. The Educational Documentary Program, although in its infancy has already successfully posted a number of short documentaries on YouTube with a variety of themes such as cave ecology and who AKKA is and what it wants to do in the future.  Also, this program has been able to receive support from professionals in the field of documentary through workshops and active mentoring.  The Community Work Program is based on active collaboration between AKKA and local community organizations.  We are collaborating with CUBU to try and restore an urban forest as well as enabling the area so it can be used as a school yard laboratory for the adjacent schools of the community.  We are also working with GAIA to promote science in elementary schools around the island.  One of the programs that has been growing and hopefully will continue to grow is our Proposal Writing Program.  AKKA has successfully attained two maintenance grants and one special projects grant from the SEEDS program (*AKKA has now received two special project grants).  We have received funding support from the Institute of Tropical Ecosystems Studies, the Center for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation and the Natural Science Department to achieve the different programs mentioned above.  Today we are waiting for replies from the SEEDS Program and the Federal Program for Urban Reforestation in Puerto Rico of proposal written to further our programs.

AKKA has also been able to incorporate into the university administrative groups through the representation of our President, Manuel Sanfiorenzo De Orbeta, in the Environmental advice group of the senate.  Sanfiorenzo is also one of the lead organizers of the Committee for the Development of the University Century Park located in our campus.  AKKA has also 9 past and present members who have participated in SEEDS activities such as fellowships (2), field trips (2), leadership meetings (3) and ESA travel awards (2).  Finally, this year AKKA has also been full of recognition from our university and international organizations.  AKKA has been recognized by: 1)INVENTIO, the graduate research and technology magazine of the UPR, for its work in Mona Island, 2) Dialogo, UPR newspaper, for its work with the local community, 3) SEEDS Dispersal, for the collaboration with LIFE Chapter and 4) OTS- Manual for Best Practices for recruiting and Retaining Underrepresented Groups in Ecology and the Environmental Sciences, for our work as active educators and recruiters and our collaboration efforts.

All this success has not come easy for us.  We have worked very hard to keep AKKA active and representative in our community.  Sometimes we are fighting against the tides with administrative aspects of funding here at our University.  Nevertheless we always come back on top because of our great unity between student members and our collaborators.  As one of the AKKA founders I am extremely proud of what the students have accomplished in just one year and the ability they have to ignite fire and energy into everybody who comes for the first time to one of AKKA’s meetings.  I know that they will continue to grow as a team and as individuals.