Broncos Lead interns lead efforts to encourage sustainability in Kalamazoo

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—As the city of Kalamazoo works toward a greener future, Western Michigan University students are helping lead the way.  

For the second year in a row, the city’s Department of Public Services advanced its zero-waste initiatives through a partnership with the Broncos Lead Internship Program, hiring students from the industrial organizational behavior management graduate program to research ways to increase sustainability efforts. 

“The impact of these Broncos Lead interns has been really significant because of the quality of work that the students provide, and a lot of that is because of their dedication to their studies and their craft,” says Chris Broadbent, B.A.’08, solid waste coordinator for the Kalamazoo Department of Public Services. “They bring professionalism and baseline knowledge about sustainability endeavors and also behavior management, which is really what we’re working on here.” 

In 2025, Broncos Lead interns worked with the downtown coordinator to double the number of recycling and trash bins and increase recycling downtown.  

“By setting up in these public spaces, we have a lot of room to experiment and learn and grow and adapt to what the situation or the environment calls for,” says Broadbent.  

The students also audited waste materials to provide guidance on signage directing people to dispose of waste and completed door-to-door deliveries of recycling bins and bags. 

“We want to make sure we have resources to help people succeed, and the Broncos Lead interns were instrumental in getting us into the public spaces and helping us fulfill some other projects, and that helped us expand in ways that we wouldn’t have been able to without them,” says Broadbent. “The teams have done a really fantastic job of being able to provide collaborative, useful information for other teams and departments.” 

Putting research into practice 

Jane Ye’s experience was so impactful it became the focus of her thesis project, and she returned in summer 2026 to partner with the program and focus on waste diversion at the Kalamazoo Farmers Market. 

“Our lab went through the literature to see what are the best practices we could use at the farmers market or other public events and how we could apply them,” she says. “I was able to apply what I learned from our [graduate] program and also utilize the behavior science that we really value to actually improve a real-life situation and make things better.” 

Ye enlisted the help of a new cohort of Broncos Lead interns to ramp up her research. They worked to determine a recycling baseline and then attempted different approaches to encouraging the practice, from adding instructional signage and examples of what to recycle to having volunteers talk to visitors and provide information. 

“We want to find a long-term, cost-effective way to boost recycling performance,” she says. 

For Elena Hartigan, part of the summer 2026 intern cohort, the work was an opportunity to see the impact of research in real time. 

“It’s given me really interesting insight into how solid waste management and sustainability works on the government side of things,” she says. “I already had an interest in applied research and getting to do things that are very hands-on and getting to see the impact of what I do. I definitely want to broaden my experience with sustainability.” 

‘Taking care of our Earth’ 

In addition to the farmers market, the summer interns helped with recycling efforts at Lunchtime Live, a seasonal weekly food truck and music event in downtown Kalamazoo. 

“It’s been so rewarding and so cool to get engaged with Kalamazoo in this way,” says intern Jacquelyn Bileth. “I get to meet all sorts of members of the community who are from different facets of life and different businesses, and I get to engage with them and hear their stories. They’ll tell us about how they’ve recycled or ask if we can get them in contact with someone to help them recycle. It’s been really great to help people get better at taking care of our Earth.” 

Bileth, who also works in Western’s Office for Sustainability, sees the internship as a crucial stepping stone to a future in the industry. 

“I’m looking into working in sustainability in higher education, so it’s been great to have this under my belt and be able to say I’ve helped with sustainability projects and reference waste diversion efforts I’ve worked on,” she says. 

While the internships gave students invaluable Experience-Driven Learning opportunities, the city gained crucial support for its sustainability goals as well. 

“I don’t think we would be in the public spaces this quickly without having the Broncos Lead support,” says Broadbent. 

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