March 19, 2007

College Eight wins sustainability award

College Eight's Sustainability Project won the Outstanding Project Award given by the American College Personnel Association at its annual conference in Orlando, Florida. This award recognizes exemplary cocurricular initiatives that significantly impact the educational experience of first-year students.

The Sustainability Project complements the core course, Environment and Society, by engaging each first-year student in a learning experience that directly connects the student to the environment. Students participated in community learning settings and reflected on those experiences in the core course.

Projects included:

• Waste Watchers - focusing on recycling initiatives
• Hidden Connections within Food Waste - students collected, composted, and tracked food scraps from the Oakes/College Eight Dining Hall
• Harvest for Health - students harvested and ate food from the UCSC Farm prepared by dining hall chefs
• Jump to the Dump - students visited the local waste-management transfer station to see and understand where and how waste gets transported.

The project was led by Heidi Lewin and Joy Pehlke, college program coordinators, in partnership with Tim Galarneau from the Student Environmental Center.