Part 1: The Drexel University experiment.
This is the first article of a series looking at how college age young people live Sustainability and how this experience transforms their life.
This post and the next 4, focus on the experience of a group of students who took part in an Environmental Sustainability Learning Community or ESC that emerged at Drexel University.
The last post is a step-by-step instruction on how to organize your own Clothing Swap.
Here are links to all the articles in this series:
- Post # 1:How the Drexel U. ESC Came About?,
- Post #2: The Leader/Facilitator,
- Post #3: The Dumpster Diver,
- Post #4: The Efficient Organizer
- Post #5: The Unexpected Environmentalist.
- Post #6: How to organize a Clothing Swap
During the Fall of 2008 new student orientation, Drexel University Residence Hall Administration asked members of the incoming Freshmen Class to fill out a survey that included questions that checked the interest of the new students in joining 5 proposed Communities to be created on themes such as: Sustainability, Diversity, Social Justice , etc…The purpose of the “Living-Learning Communities” initiative was to improve the experience of first year students living in Drexel University Residence Halls by allowing them to create their own living themes.
Getting Started…
The Residential Living Office made sure that the students who indicated an interest in one of the Living-Learning Communities offered would live in the same building.
The only Living-Learning Community that got off the ground was the Sustainability Community. The original 2 Interns assigned to the Sustainability Community resigned after a few weeks, unable to juggle the combined demands of their studies and the support of the emerging Sustainability Community.
Finding a skilled facilitator:
After this challenging start, the Residential Living Office assigned a passionate and dedicated facilitator along with a $10,000 budget, to the group of students who chose to create the Sustainability Community. At the time, Brett Haymaker was getting by on the meager income of a Residence Hall Assistant. Brett had the right combination of skills, passion and background. He had just organized a Stair Run that raised enough money to buy 300 mosquito nets through “Malaria No More”. Brett started working with the Sustainability Community the very same day he got the job offer.
Goals:
Brett established 3 goals for the Sustainability Community:
- Establish a Team identity – Move the members of the Sustainability Community from Group to become a Team
- Establish a Legacy Project, i.e: organize a week long activity – part of Earth week.
- Help the group to become a self sustainable organization by building skills, identify weaknesses, strengthen – recruit more members, so group would survive without Brett.
Process:
Brett would meet with the Sustainability Community once to twice a week. One of those two meetings was always a diner (made from locally grown foods) with the community. Every month, Brett would organize an event for the group such as: the visit of a landfill, a water processing plant in North Philadelphia, a cooling power plant or bird watching at the John Heintz Wildlife Refuge.
Initially all events were proposed and organized by Brett. In the course of the next 3 or 4 months, the members of the Sustainability Community started taking initiative.
Outcomes:
- A University wide Earth Day Art Contest,
- They invited PhillyCarshare to do a demonstration in the center of the Drexel campus on the Quad
. - They organized clothing swap to benefit the Darfur Relief coalition
- They had six speakers from different University Departments and city organizations to present on Sustainability best practices and initiatives conducted at Drexel University.
The following school year, the Sustainability Learning Community program morphed into a “For Students by Students” program that enables four or more students to live together in an active and socially responsible community united by a common interest.
In articles following this post, Brett and three members of the Sustainability Group describe how their life changed by the experience of living in the Sustainability Learning Community.
