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People Profiles
Drew Wohlenhaus
- Hometown: Yelm, WA
- Major: Vehicle Design and Plastics/Composites Technology
Encouraging Imagination
Nicole Larson and Nicole Hoekstra have been very influential in my last few years at WWU in that they have encouraged the research and development of “imagination” like no other. I feel like I could walk into their labs with just about any “outside the box” or seemingly crazy idea and they'll look at it from several different angles to try and find a solution.
Proud Moments
In one week, I got two calls from NASA, one of which was on the recommendation of Buzz Aldrin who was the keynote speaker at one of the vehicle conferences my team won an award at; that was an incredible week exceeded only by the actual winning of the EPA P3 award back in April '07.
Interning with NASA
Since I arrived at NASA for my internship, I've been promoted to the position of NASA green project manager, a position in which I'm combining the efforts of hundreds of scientists and engineers with the capital might of the private sector and the sheer talent and passion that defines the university community. I now have a working group of contacts within nearly two dozen universities and several Native American Tribes along the West Coast and throughout the Northwest. I have teleconferences with these groups every week while we continue developing a sustainable world. I'm helping these schools by crafting biomethane proposals for their own unique campus food waste systems.
Life after Western
My life goal is to move our culture into an era of sustainability with the hopes that doing so could halt or even reverse the catastrophic climate change already taking place. There are so many reasons for sustainability; climate change is merely a drop in the bucket. If everyone in the world becomes sustainable, perhaps the wars over resources will cease to exist.