Oak Ridge Student Recognized
for Contribution to Advisory Board

Oak Ridge, Tenn. - June 27, 2002 - Environmental cleanup of the Department of Energy=s (DOE=s) Oak Ridge Reservation wasn=t on Alix King=s course list when she started her senior year at Oak Ridge High School. Now, a year later, she probably knows more about it than many people in this area.

That=s because Alix has just finished her term as a student representative to the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board (SSAB)Can independent citizens= panel chartered to advise DOE on environmental cleanup at its Oak Ridge Reservation.

Alix was awarded a plaque of appreciation at a recent SSAB meeting for her contributions to DOE and the board. The plaque was presented by Gerald Boyd, DOE-Oak Ridge Assistant Manager for Environmental Management.

AWe really appreciate Alix=s taking the time to participate on the SSAB,@ Boyd said. AOak Ridge is the only SSAB across the country to have student representatives, and I think it=s wonderful that our local high school students have this type of opportunity.@

Alix says the experience was extremely educational. “Until I served on the board, I really wasn’t aware of what was going on in the Oak Ridge cleanup,” she says. “We took tours of cleanup sites that really opened by eyes to the behind the scenes activities.”

Membership on  the board was also beneficial for making contacts in the “real world” of environmental cleanup, where Alix hopes to make her career following college at UT-Chattanooga. This past year she worked as an intern for SAIC in the Environmental Project Management area.

Alix and several of her classmates from Oak Ridge High School recently completed a summary of a report on long-term environmental stewardship at DOE=s Oak Ridge Reservation. The summary, along with the summary of a companion document done by Roane County High School students, will be distributed to area middle schools and high schools this fall as part of an educational resource kit to help teachers introduce the concept of environmental cleanup to their students.

The SSAB student membership program began in 1999 with one student. The program was then expanded so that one student would be selected each year from Oak Ridge High School, and another would be chosen on a rotating basis from one of the high schools surrounding Oak Ridge. And although the students are non-voting members, they study cleanup issues and participate in meetings and other activities just like voting members.

Two new representativesCJenna Carignan of Oak Ridge High School and Maurie Douglas of Karns High SchoolCwere appointed in May 2002.