The Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board (ORSSAB) welcomed two new student representatives at its June meeting. Sophia Cui and Alana Joldersma will serve on the board through April 2016. ORSSAB is a federally chartered citizens’ panel that provides recommendations to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.

Sue Cange, the board’s DOE Deputy Designated Federal Officer and Manager of Environmental Management for the Oak Ridge Reservation, introduced Sophia and Alana. “Welcome and thank you for volunteering your time. I hope your experience with us will be fruitful and you’ll learn more about the environmental management work on the Oak Ridge Reservation.”

“We all welcome you to the board,” said board chair Dave Hemelright. “I hope you make the most of your time and have as a rewarding experience as so many of our previous students have.”

Sophia will be a senior at Hardin Valley Academy, where she has been on the Hardin Valley varsity tennis team the past three years.

Sophia is interested in medicine and health sciences and is thinking about a career in medicine.

She is currently the President of the American Red Cross Club at Hardin Valley and volunteers with the local Red Cross to help and support the community. She is also the vice president of Health Occupations Students of America, which competes in health-related knowledge competitions.

Alana will be a senior at Oak Ridge High School. This past school year she was selected to be a co-project manager for the school's FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Team, the 4265 Secret City Wildbots.

She is interested in film production and is working on a documentary film about the conflict in Israel and Palestine.

She has always been interested in environmental science and taking advanced placement environmental science in high school fueled her interest in the subject.

Alana plans to study film production and perhaps minor in environmental science. It’s been a dream of hers to work with National Geographic, perhaps making a documentary film about environmental science someday.

ORSSAB meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m., at the DOE Information Center in Oak Ridge. Information about the board is available on the internet at www.energy.gov/ORSSAB or by calling (865) 241-4583 or 241-4584.