UW-Stevens Point student helps keep Miller Park 'green'
Brewers baseball has always been special to University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point senior Rachel Gasper – from going to games with her family in her youth to summers working concessions since she was 16 years old.
It seems fitting that Miller Park would become a part of her university experience as well.
Last summer, instead of walking around the stadium selling peanuts and cotton candy, the New Berlin native served a paid internship with Delaware North Milwaukee Sportservice, the exclusive food, beverage and retail provider for Miller Park. Gasper worked within the company's Green Path program, finding ways to become more sustainable within day-to-day park operations.
This fit perfectly with her major in resource management with an option of natural resource planning and her minors in sustainable energy and business administration.
"I heard about the intern opportunity when I was at a training meeting for my summer job," said Gasper. "It caught my interest because it combined the environment with business."
While it was an unusual location for a natural resources student, Professor Anna Haines said that when students come to her with internship ideas she has them articulate their career goals and aspirations and pursue internships that align.
"I thought it was a great opportunity for her to get experience in corporate environmental management and understand how that aspect interacts with other areas of the business," Haines said. "I believe she is well-positioned for a career in the field she identified."
The internship allowed Gasper to create her own projects. She worked with Assistant Concessions Manager Matt Kriefall to set sustainability goals for the concession and retail areas of the park. They included generating less solid waste, using less energy and find more ways to recycle and use recycled materials.
Gasper also brought ideas and resources to expand a new herb and vegetable garden at the park that offers its harvest to Club Level restaurants. She tracked food waste and spoilage for each game and looked at ways to reduce that waste as well as the possibilities of distributing food items to local food banks and shelters within the city of Milwaukee.
She applied many UW-Stevens Point classroom experiences to the job, she said.
"My boss didn't have a natural resource background," said Gasper, "so I was able to use what I've learned at UW-Stevens Point and apply it to a large setting. My sustainable energy minor classes taught by Assistant Professor Shiba Kar inspired me to find even small ways to start being sustainable. Our class discussions were helpful in that we bounce different ideas off each other, and those ideas gave me options and applications in the business world."
Kriefall said the data collection she started to generate less waste will continue and will make an impact throughout the course of the 2017 season.
"With Rachel's help, managers at Delaware North Sportservice at Miller Park gained some new insight on how process changes can affect our business in positive ways," he said. "Not only will the changes save time and money, but they will protect the environmental properties as well."
Gasper will graduate in May and hopes to find a corporate career that allows her to create sustainability plans for businesses that protect the environment while still making a profit.
"You can bring sustainability into any business," said Gasper. "I'd like any job that could help me protect what I love."
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