Ҵýƽ

Search

Student Work Gallery

Student Work Gallery

All work shared with student consent. Contact SAS Lab for more information.

Colorado Energy Regulation Changing for the Better

SAS Lab StoryMap Team (Jack Carter, MENV, MA, 2026; Mel Hanby, COMM, MA, 2026; Anette Marmolejo, ENVS, UG, 2026; Sommer Vermeil, ENVS, UG, 2026; with editing support from Anthony Albidrez, JRNL, MA, 2026)

In the 2026 spring semester, a group of graduate and undergraduate students worked together to design a to commemorate the 75thanniversary of the Department of Natural Resource’s ECMC. The topic was suggested for its timeliness and to amplify recent efforts to increase community engagement. In ongoing dialogue with ECMC’sEnvironmental Justice Community Liaison, Yesica Chavez, they all researched policies, historical archives, and co-wrote a StoryMap covering decades of changes. Notably, you will hear samples from interviews Jack did with Rachel Lehman from Black Parents United Foundation, Mel with AndrewForkes-Gudmundsonfrom EarthWorks Action, and Anette with Ryan Costa, a state Reclamation Specialist (DNR). Our goal was to identify how government regulation has improved, but not to gloss over areas for improvement. We believe it is important to talk about the pivotal role of government and the ways community-based expertise can help shape policies and practices.

Anette Marmolejo (ENVS, UG, 2026)

In Fall 2025, undergraduate student interns from Environmental Studies fact checked the StoryMaps our lab had piloted with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Identifying broken links and updated information, they helped contribute to the ongoing information integrity of our work. Annette Marmolejo presented on this work at her first academic conference for a Global Environmental Justice Conference. The SAS Lab was proud to hear her present so eloquently on this evidence-based research.

Anette standing at a podium presenting with a screen behind her

lower arkansas river valley poster
North Denver poster

Pueblo CO poster

San Luis Valley poster

Claire Legg (ENVS, UG)

In Fall 2025, Claire Legg (ENVS, UG) interned in the SAS Lab to bring her artistic talents to her environmental studies interests. The result? She designed posters and postcards of four of our StoryMaps. Claire hopes to circulate these designs in communities and encourage youth living there to make their own, as well as to look at the StoryMaps we in partnership with CDPHE. Check them out and let us know your favorite.

Henry Wallace (Environmental Studies, UG), Sara Fleming (Geography, Master’s student) & the whole Spring 2025 lab

In Spring 2025, the SAS Lab interns worked together to design a StoryMap of the state of Colorado’s Mobile Home Parks. This project was suggested by the Office of Environmental Justice in the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to feature new laws to protect water supplies and ongoing challenges with repairing communities after climate-related disasters when residents don’t own the land beneath their homes. Henry took the lead in creating the design, researching historical archives, finding a relevant map, and more. We found out Sara Fleming, enrolled in the Foundations of Environmental Justice graduate class, already had interviews with residents and compelling research on mobile home parks in Colorado, which she kindly shared. Independently, students found SAS Lab member extraordinaire Anthony Albidrez’s photography, which we attribute and asked permission to use. Many of us connected to this story had family or ourselves had lived in a mobile home park for some time—making the work meaningful on another level as well. As affordable housing remains a challenge for most in Colorado and beyond, we all were very proud to work on this story.
mobile homes park

“All Labor Involves Care”: Communicating Care. Podcast audio waves with the podcast’s icon, a brown hand holding up the earth wearing red headphones.

Anthony Albidrez (Journalism graduate student)

The SAS Lab welcomes people just starting out, as well as experts seeking meaningful high impact learning experiences. The SAS Lab might not exist without Anthony’s extraordinary storytelling skills. Anthony joined us as someone with talents and extensive experience in journalism and photojournalism already. He has edited most of our podcasts and lead the production of most of the ArcGIS StoryMaps to date. Professor Pezzullo first met him in her graduate course on Environmental Justice Foundations in 2022. Ever since, he has shared his expertise, including a training for the SAS Lab, and, of course, his sass.

Alysia Abbas (Major: Communication Studies, Minor: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences)

In Professor Pezzullo's undergraduate course on Climate Justice Storytelling, students were given an option to craft a creative extension of the (also a SAS Lab project), Alysia Abbas (Ҵýƽ COMM '25), who grew up in North Denver, created a zine about noise pollution. Then, in Spring 2025, she was an intern in the SAS Lab with the support of the Ҵýƽ Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship and created a second zine on air pollution. Both zines showcase her background in communication and environmental sciences, as well as her sassy creativity.

A blue Zine cover that state: “NOISE: Finding your sound in all of the noise” With clip art of musical notes, a plane, a train, a bison, and a truck.

Look at the zine

A grey Zine cover that states: “How to Breathe In this Air?” With clip art of trees, wind, pollution from a cityscape, and dead trees.

Look at the zine

Corrina Schell (Major: Environmental Studies and Economics)

A SAS Lab intern with the support of the Ҵýƽ Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship, as a junior, she coordinated graduate students to lead a project on environmental education, incorporating feedback from state government experts, peers, the SAS Lab Director, and elementary aged children. Under her leadership and patience, the SAS Lab was able to create educational interactive coloring and activity sheets for youth ages 5-12 years old living in Colorado. This Word Find was inspired by the San Luis Valley. We look forward to developing more environmental educational materials in the future.

This is a Word Find exercise with terms reflecting the San Luis Valley, such as Sanddunes, Acequias, water, and farm.

collage of four separate images. Acrylic painted trails people have made off the established sidewalk, to move as they desire, as well as a landscape painting of North Denver.

Check out the StoryMap

Nicole Sansglyph (Major: Bachelor’s of Fine Arts, Minors: Communication and Art & Art History)

In Professor Pezzullo's undergraduate course on Climate Justice Storytelling, students were given an option to craft a creative extension of the (also a SAS Lab project). Nicole was inspired by what she learned about North Denver and created “Desire Path” (11 pages, Acrylic on Paper, 7.75” x 11”). From her artist’s statement: "Desire Path seeks to connect the concept of desire paths to community building, a desire path emerges when people repeatedly choose to leave sidewalks in favor of more direct routes. These paths are local and organic, maintained by the collective agreement of a community seeking a better way. . . In the context of this November 2024, I am reflecting on what it means to be part of a community. By highlighting the initiatives in North Denver, I am following my own desire path—a journey of reflection and understanding the roots of social change.”