Jake Sullivan '10
The Green Man
Jake Sullivan is best known to the OES community as an amazing actor who never fails to surprise and delight audiences at OES productions. But they may not realize he plays a different role after the curtain goes down on the final night. He works with the crew and the other actors to dismantle the set and take the pieces to the stagecraft room so they can be recycled into a set for another production.
Jake has been one of the leaders of The Green Team, a group of students who try to enhance sustainability at the school. He originally became involved in his junior year mainly because of his friendship with group founder Emma Newman ’09, even though he was more interested in social justice issues. But it was a good fit for him.
“This is a kind of social justice work,” he said. “Struggles over resources lead to injustices such as lack of food security. I love the outdoors, but I am really thinking of sustainability in terms of its effect on other people.”
The Green Team set up a recycling center in the Great Hall, conducted a Styrofoam recycling drive, created a Google map to help OES families find carpooling partners, and did other projects to raise awareness about sustainable practices. The team has a bulletin board in the Great Hall that currently displays charts showing campus use of water, electricity, natural gas, and paper. The goal is to educate themselves and others about the use of resources to stimulate ideas about how to reduce consumption.
Before enrolling at Colorado College, Jake embarked on a gap year. He visited Israel with a program called Birthright, then did trail maintenance with a crew in Alaska’s Kenai Fjords National Park. Then he served as an intern in the office of Senator Jeff Merkley, and then he did service work in Asia with his parents—a doctor and a health educator--and his 12-year-old sister.
If Jake sounds like a guy with an overly earnest agenda, well just forget about that. In addition to composting and carpooling, one of his favorite pastimes is comedy improv. He started doing improv at ComedySportz in the Pearl, and more recently he has done ensemble improve with groups at Curious Comedy Theater in Northeast Portland.
“We learned a form called emotional rollercoaster,” he said. “When you initiate a scene, you start by telling your scene partner something about themselves. You don’t have to try to be funny. It just ends up being funny. It helps you recognize the humor in life. It’s great to be able to laugh.”
