Lucas Brown '09 Photo by Rachel Cotterman '10

In recognition of his potential as a leader in environmental policy, the national Morris K. Udall Foundation has named Oberlin economics major Lucas Brown '09 a 2008 Udall Scholar.

He is one of 80 students from 64 colleges and universities selected by a 14-member committee on the basis of commitment to careers in the environment, health care or tribal public policy, leadership potential, and academic achievement. The scholarship carries an award of $5,000 to be used for senior-year tuition.

Brown is passionate about helping people reduce global warming through policies that save money and increase profits.

"My fellow students and I are learning—from such visionaries as Nobel-Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, founder of microcredit lending—that millions of people can be lifted out of poverty through social entrepreneurism,: Brown says. "By embracing the power of profit, we can use capitalism as a tool to promote social justice and preserve the environment.:

By putting his passion into action during his three years at Oberlin, Brown has racked up a number of achievements that garnered him the Udall.

He founded the Oberlin Ecological Design and General Efficiency fund (Green EDGE Fund ), which loans money for student-designed campus energy conservation projects and returns the energy savings to the fund as interest. He helped to design its structure, to secure $50,000 in College funding, to recruit the board, and to persuade 85 percent of the student body to approve raising student fees—an increase that could contribute up to $50,000 to the fund.

Brown also helped found SEED House ( Student Experiment in Ecological Design), a sustainability themed house whose residents weatherize local low-income homes. He co-designed the low-emissions house and helped to recruit members, to secure College funding for repairs, to lead outreach programs, and to install an energy monitoring system .

Brown was also a member of the campus environmental policy group that organized a car share program and successfully lobbied the College to commit to a LEED Silver standard and work toward eventual carbon neutrality. In addition, he helped reduce Oberlin's carbon emissions by maintaining the EPA-award-winning dorm energy monitoring system.

Off campus, he has worked for Washington, D. C. Mayor Adrian Fenty '92, conducting research on D.C.'s job training programs and inspecting earmarks for Fenty's budget director, Will Singer '03. He also served as lead programmer of iLoveMountains.org, one of the most innovative advocacy sites on the web, and he successfully lobbied the legislative directors of Senator McCain and eight U.S. representatives to reduce mountaintop removal by co-sponsoring the Clean Water Protection Act.

Brown says Oberlin's strong economics department, its project-focused programs in environmental studies and politics, and its Creativity and Leadership Project are creating a growing contingent of students who are fast, flexible realists capable of balancing idealism with pragmatism.

"Our professors and friends at Oberlin have helped us see our potential. They have taught us how to build strong relationships and coalitions behind environmental goals, and they have taught us to constantly learn from mistakes and missed opportunities.