From Cleveland to Uganda
Alumna Erin Huber Rosen, BS environmental sciences ’09 and MS urban studies ’11, is passionate about water.
“There is no reason we should live in a world where a child under six dies every 20 seconds due to unsafe water and plastic beaches are forming on our coasts,” she says.
As executive director of Drink Local. Drink Tap., a nonprofit organization she founded in 2010, she and others who share her passion are educating people about the importance of water conservation and water scarcity around the world.
DLDT has grown from local educational outreach and monthly volunteer beach cleanups (which it still does) to tackling international projects. The organization has completed more than 50 projects in Uganda, bringing safe water to nearly 20,000 people and safe sanitation to some 10,000 people.
The projects range from digging wells and building latrines and bathing/handwashing facilities to bringing clean water to primary schools. The organization even produced a documentary film, Making Waves from Cleveland to Uganda. More projects are in the works.
Activism is in Rosen’s blood. She cofounded CSU’s Student Environmental Movement, was a driving force behind the Recreation Center’s rooftop garden, and was instrumental in bringing a farmers market to campus.
A recipient of CSU’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012, she was included in CSU’s first class of Fascinating Alumni in 2015. She was named one of Cleveland Magazine’s Most Interesting People for 2012 and was voted Best Activist by Cleveland Scene Magazine in 2017.
For more information, visit www.drinklocaldrinktap.org/
This year,
Northeast Ohio marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuyahoga River igniting.
Cleveland State, with its prime location near the river and Lake Erie, is joining in the celebration.
Through research, conservation and other means, CSU faculty, staff, students and alumni are focusing their energies on this most precious natural resource.
Also in this Issue...
Engineers without Borders
Student Shaun Clark received hands-on engineering experience when he traveled to the western end of Panama to study a community’s water needs. Read more >>