Acknowledgments I would like to thank Aimee Williamson, my supervisor, and Kate Radosevic for being extremely patient with me and taking me as an intern on such late notice! You have been so accommodating and beyond generous. You’ve both taught me so many professional and life skills and I know I will take them with me for years to come – beyond that, I could truly feel that you cared about me as an individual. I feel incredibly blessed to have met and worked with you both, and can’t wait to have some mesquite pancakes with you. Cheers!

Permaculture 101per·ma·cul·ture

nounan agricultural system or method that seeks to integrate human activity with natural surroundings so as to create highly efficient self-sustaining ecosystems (Merriam-Webster)

Who is Valley Permaculture Alliance?

“Valley Permaculture Alliance (VPA) is a Phoenix-based environmental education nonprofit that works to inspire sustainable urban living in the desert southwest.”

VPA aims to spread permaculture ethic and practices to the Phoenix metropolitan area through various programs including:•SRP shade tree program•Local Seed Library•Permaculture Classes & Workshops•Community Events and ProgramsAll of VPA’s solutions are based on community and volunteer support and sharing of surplus( i.e. time, donations, knowledge)

Who is Paulina Vu? My Activities as the Events InternAs the Events Intern, my main responsibility was to assist the staff with the planning and implementation of events related to the SRP shade tree program. Broadly speaking, I focused on two large events:

• Shade Tree Workshop, 3/19/16, Avondale City Hall, with attendance of roughly 500-600 people

• Mesquite Pancake Breakfast, The Space Between Park, 4/30/16, attendance not yet confirmed

The Shade Tree Workshop is done in association with SRP, with the intent to increase the amount of shade tree coverage in residential homes. Interested SRP customers register, attend the workshop to learn about tree care, and then receive up to two shade tree saplings.

Within this event, I attended planning meetings, a site visit of the Avondale City Hall, and assisted with set-up, implementation, and tear down on the day of the event. During the event, I was handling the Help Desk, which facilitated walk-in or missing registrations.

ConclusionsTo be absolutely honest, I came into this internship with no idea of what permaculture really was. However, as a explored VPA through this internship, I could see the connections between permaculture and sustainability. The three aspects of permaculture can really be tied into the 3 E’s of sustainability.

Care of the Earth links to the Environment sector of sustainability. Obviously, VPA seeks to care for the environment by incorporating it into our daily lives. This can be seen through the Shade Tree Program and the Mesquite Pancake Breakfast.

Care of the People relates to the Social aspect of sustainability. VPA promotes community bonding through several events such as communal potlucks, classes, etc. VPA also promotes the health and well-being of people through a natural, local lifestyle.

Though its not entirely obvious, Share of the Surplus relates to the economic aspect of sustainability. I found the “surplus” idea of VPA to be very interesting. Rather than thinking of negatives and how unequal the world is, VPA seeks to reduce inequality and improve quality of life through sharing its surplus in time, knowledge, or resources.

VPA has sustainability embedded in its very core. Permaculture is about creating harmonic, self-sustaining human and natural systems – and this is sustainability.

Permaculture with a Chance of Pancakes: A Forecast of Many RolesPaulina Vu, Sustainability (BS); Energy, Materials, & Technology — Valley Permaculture Alliance

Literature cited Valley Permaculture Alliance - about us.

(2015). Vpaaz.org. Retrieved 12 April 2016, from http://vpaaz.org/AboutUs

Valley Permaculture Alliance - permaculture. (2016). Vpaaz.org. Retrieved 12 April 2016, from http://vpaaz.org/Permaculture

Fig. 2. Just a few of the many dedicated volunteers and staff at VPA.

Fig. 3. The official logo of Valley Permaculture Alliance, used for all signage, posters, and media

Fig. 4(A-C). (A) depicts the tree corral, the storage place for tree saplings before SRP customers pick them up. (B) shows the shade tree workshop, in which attendees learn where to plant and how to care for shade trees, among other things. (C) Shows the “Ask the Expert” desk, where attendees can get more information from master gardeners

The Mesquite Pancake Breakfast is a part of the Edible Desert series, which aims to educate people on food productsfrom desert-adapted plants. This year, we will be highlighting the benefits and taste of mesquite flour.

My main duties for this event include preliminary market research, compiling a sample menu, site visits and site mapping, and handling marketing initiatives related to the breakfast.

Marketing the event was the main focus of my internship for this particular event. The tasks I accomplished are as follows:

• Design and development of the main event poster•Design and posting of all social media promotion •Development of overall marketing plan • Contacting outside media outlets to promote the breakfast on both traditional and social media

Fig. 5. (Left) Mesquite flour has a variety of health benefits – it is low-glycemic, gluten-free, and high in protein. (Below) One of the posts I created for the social media promotion

I had a surprising amount of design and ability to create materials – this was incredibly challenging but also rewarding.

The entire breakfast is loosely based on the children’s book, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I developed this concept and drafted initial posters of my ideas – one poster with all of the event details and another highlighting the menu.

I collaborated with a professional graphic designer, Christopher Sample, to complete the final poster draft, pictured above on the bottom left. The menu forecast was drafted and then digitized by me for later promotion of the event.

Fig. 6. The evolution of marketing materials. The left images are the main event posters and the right images are the menu “forecast”.

For further informationPlease contact ptvu3@asu.edu. Feel free to ask any questions or connect with me on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulina-vu-509a69101

Fig. 1. An illustration of the three components of permaculture: Care of the Earth, Care of the People, and Share of the Surplus; the leaf in the center represents permaculture

CA B