Proud of Our Growing Young Professionals Program

I had the opportunity to attend a Young Professionals (YPs) virtual happy hour a couple of weeks ago. Yes, they do allow one or two Old Professionals (OPs) at their meetings. I believe that they appreciate some of my baby boomer humor and conversation, at least that was what I perceived. I really enjoyed hearing about the work that they are doing in their professional lives, as well as how they are spending their COVID-19 social distancing free time.

I’m really proud of the YP Program and how far it has come over the past eight years. It started back in 2012 and USCC staff member Leanne Spaulding and Gary Nihart of Atlas Organics. I was President of the Council at that time and realized that our membership was aging out. We really needed to get more YPs involved in our industry. Leanne and Gary started it all by organizing an after-hours social at COMPOST2012. This then blossomed over the years to one of the best networking events at our annual conference. I haven’t missed one since then.

In 2014, Linda Norris-Waldt picked up working with the YPs when Leanne left the USCC and was instrumental in broadening the program to include a mentor-mentee as a part of the program. YPs also have worked on community service projects before our conference as a means of giving back to the local community by building compost bins and working in community gardens. This along with the Emerging Composter Challenge and now the Conference Poster Session has grown the involvement of YPs in our industry.

In 2017, the YP’s established a Leadership Group that acts as the steering committee for the YP Program. Megan Hester, our resident YP, is now the USCC staff assigned to work with the YP Leadership. This year the mentor-mentee program has grown to 32 pairs.

Thanks to the leadership team of Gowri Sundarasaram (Mentoring Chair), Kristine Ellsworth (Steering Committee), Felipe Pedrazzi (Webinar Committee), Shelby Hoglund (Volunteer Project Chair), Isaac Bearg (outgoing Emerging Composter Chair), and Patrick Evans (incoming Emerging Composter Chair). We encourage other Young Professionals to join! Learn more at www.compostingcouncil.org/youngprofessionalsprogram.