In a world grappling with climate change, it is crucial that the younger generations are educated on the processes that regulate and sustain life on Earth. During the third week of May, Center for Sustainable Communities in partnership with The Ray, Georgia Space Grant Consortium, conducted STEM outreach at both Montessori and Creekside School in middle Georgia, involving close to 300 students. The two days activities were facilitated by a representative of The Ray, two interns from Center for Sustainable Communities (CSC), alongside CSC founder Garry Harris.

student interns with middle school studentsWith the aid of interactive presentations and visually captivating materials, middle school students began to unravel the mysteries of…


Frank Wickstead, an adjunct professor in the School of Building Construction and Managing Partner at Alair Buckhead Studios, has taught several SLS affiliated courses, often with an emphasis on connecting to communities where there are great strengths, and also dire needs. Most recently, he has partnered with the US Ukrainian Foundation and Uzhgorod National University and with Izmir Institute of Technology. Below, Frank offers us insight into this important partnership and the impact it has and will have on both the partner constituencies and the students. 

Would you describe the very partnerships you’ve created for your Residential Design Build students?


Daraja Brown is a second-year Civil Engineering student with a Spanish minor from Charlotte, NC. She first connected with SLS through the Building for Equity and Sustainability VIP, within which she is a sub-team lead for the Ratings Systems sub-team and recently had the honor of receiving a VIP Mentor Award. Daraja is passionate about leveraging her engineering knowledge and career to advance equity in historically-marginalized communities, and looks forward to continuing to learn how to best do so!

When I first joined the Building for Equity and Sustainability VIP, I had no idea I would end up joining a team of incredible change makers from around the country who are all united by our shared passion for advancing equity through our infrastructure. In fact, I never even considered joining a research team before I learned about the VIP because I knew I’…


Every year, the University System of Georgia (USG) Teaching and Learning Conference brings together educators and researchers from across Georgia to share their experiences and insights on innovative teaching methods that foster connections, strengthen learning, and create opportunities to support student success. This year, a group of students from the SLS-affiliated VIP course “Building for Equity and Sustainability” shared their perspectives on how the class’s innovative teaching methods can enhance students’ learning experience by helping them build community and fostering a sense of trust and belonging, which empowers them and lets them take control of their own learning .

The presentation explored how the VIP’s student-led team projects engaged and inspired students to develop meaningful connections with each other and with local communities. Lauren Riehm, an architecture student who has been in the VIP for two years, discussed…


Earlier this spring semester, the Office of Civic Engagement hosted the 13th Annual MLK Day of Service event dedicated to celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr. Students and volunteers gathered bright and early at the Student Center to spend their “day off” giving back in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. As stated by Civic Engagement at Georgia Tech, they “offered the chance to make it a ‘day on, not a day off,’ partnering with Atlanta community organizations to connect, serve, and move us closer to Dr. King’s vision of a ‘Beloved Community.’” 

CSC Day of Service eventAs part of the…


This post is a re-print of an article published by the Georgia Tech Office of Undergraduate Education.

Georgia Tech's Serve-Learn-Sustain recently hosted an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) session in Jackson, GA.

The session was part of a short course, titled "ABCD in Practice," aimed to introduce and review the basics of ABCD, which is an approach that focuses on working with communities based on their assets and strengths.

The course, led by two Serve-Learn-Sustain faculty members, Dr. Jennifer Hirsch, and Dr. Ruthie Yow, was open to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as community partners from outside Georgia Tech. 

In February, course participants visited the Henderson School, an all-Black school in Jackson, GA, that opened in 1955 and closed in 2010. The school is being restored and repurposed by the Henderson School Alumni Association Trust (HSAAT), which hopes to turn the building into a community and workforce…


Georgia Tech student Alex Ip is a graduating Environmental Engineering major and Founder and Editor in Chief of The Xylom, a student-led nonprofit newsroom exploring the communities influencing and shaped by science.

Using skills he learned at Tech, including through SLS-affiliated courses and programs, he has been digging deep into the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center controversy, including how it influences and impacts both people and nature. Read his recent article on The Xylom’s website and learn about the site's mission at https://www.thexylom.com/about-us.

Please note that the link above takes you to a website outside of Georgia Tech. The views and opinions expressed on that website are those of the authors and do not reflect the views or positions of Georgia Tech.

 


Last month, SLS welcomed Anna Tinoco-Santiago as our new Community Engagement Specialist.  In this capacity, she will report to Ruthie Yow and support Serve-Learn-Sustain’s service-learning and community engagement work by developing and maintaining relationships with off-campus partners and by designing, managing, and implementing related programs. More specifically, Anna will: identify, develop, and maintain partnerships with off-campus partners to engage in and advance learning and action related to sustainable communities; collaborate closely with and serve as a connector among Georgia Tech’s other key community-related initiatives and offices; and develop and manage SLS programs intended to support SLS faculty and students, complement SLS courses, and benefit partners.
 
Anna's professional background includes years of experience creating and strengthening relationships between non-profit organizations, businesses, and the surrounding community. Most recently,…


History can provide valuable lessons and insights about sustainable efforts and how past civilizations have created opportunities to build community. By studying the successes and failures of previous societies, we can learn about more sustainable community-building practices that can impact our efforts to create a better world today. Last summer I wrote a series of four articles about the Spanish settlement and colonization patterns in New Mexico, focusing on their interaction with and impact on the native Puebloan peoples of the American Southwest. By exploring both the Spanish and Puebloan values, beliefs, and translations of these onto the built environment, the reader can gain a deeper appreciation for the diversity of perspectives needed to create sustainable communities and the ways in which these perspectives shape our relationship with others and the natural world.

 


The City of Atlanta owns ~381 acres in unincorporated DeKalb County – the site of an old prison farm that was built on Indigenous Muscogee land, part of what is now called South River Forest. Surrounded by Black-majority neighborhoods, this land was envisioned as a park for communities – then the City decided to build a new $90M police, fire, and corrections training center.

SLS Signature Partner, The Center for Civic Innovation, created this explainer in order to better understand the history of community participation and engagement in this process to date–– something that is core to our mission of work to ensure that people’s needs and voices are at the center of local decision making. We encourage anyone who wants to share their support or concern for this process to our elected officials.

Here are 10 main…


nicole kennard

Nicole Kennard is a Materials Science & Engineering major, graduating in May 2017.  She is the President of Engineers for a Sustainable World, Leader of the Hydroponics Project Team, and a student liaison for the Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain.

I recently attended Serve-Learn-Sustain’s MLK Day of Service at Friends of Refugees in Clarkston, GA, which is about 20 minutes from Georgia Tech. 60,000 refugees have begun their journeys as new Americans in this area, and Clarkston has even been called “the most diverse square mile in America” by the New York Times Magazine.

Coming into this service day, I didn’t know what to expect, except for a day of hard work—which it was. I helped to build a sidewalk outside the community center, while others worked on cleaning up paths to the school. However, this day was…


SLS Director Jennifer Hirsch and Service Learning and Partnerships Specialist Ruthie Yow, together with Assessment Manager for Academic Effectiveness Sarah Wu from the Office of Academic Effectiveness, have recently published an article on SLS' approach to integrating community partnerships for sustainability into engineering education in the journal Engineering Studies.

Abstract: Engineers are crucial to solving the world's most pressing challenges, but they cannot do it alone. Creating new and more just systems that support people and planet requires that engineers learn to engage with diverse stakeholders as equal partners. This article shares how the Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) initiative at the Georgia Institute of Technology has been introducing new approaches to problem-solving into engineering and technology-focused education to better prepare students to address the sustainability challenges of our moment, in collaboration with community…


The United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) continue to become more popular as the field of sustainability becomes more important across every sector and industry.

It’s no surprise, then, that Georgia Tech has incorporated and promoted sustainable development and the SDGs heavily in recent years. It seems that every entity – including local or federal government, businesses, universities, even some of the largest polluters — have begun to champion the idea of sustainability. It’s easy to let the idea of sustainability become a buzzword thrown around. But it’s not, and students shouldn’t overlook the opportunity that engaging the SDGs presents, regardless of their field or interests. 

If the last eight years are indicative of decades to come, one thing is sure:…


Last fall, SLS Staff and students organized an outing to the Hip-Hop Architecture Exhibit at the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA).  Mark Lannaman, Graduate Research Assistant with SLS wrote the following reflection about the visit: 

My trip to the Hip-Hop Architecture Exhibit at the Museum of Design Atlanta was one I will appreciate for a long time. I was able to step through time, from the inception of hip-hop in the Bronx to today, where it continues to transform alongside culture and take on new forms. Admittedly, I hadn’t quite understood the relation between the popular music genre and architecture until I toured the exhibit. The trip taught me, however, that connections can be mad everywhere.

I have an appreciation both for some good R&B and architecture; however, given my lack of technical expertise in either one, I’m not sure I’m the best person to try and relay the connection between sound and place that was presented at the exhibit. What I can say,…


A recent article published by Scheller College of Business describes how Georgia Tech's strategic plan is creating a new narrative around the idea of Georgia Tech as an "example of inclusive and impactful innovation, a leading research university relentlessly committed to serving the public good, breaking new ground in addressing the biggest local, national, and global challenges of our time, and developing exceptional leaders from all backgrounds ready to produce novel ideas and create actionable solutions."  The article highlights how group of Georgia Tech and community social innovation leaders came together regularly over the last half of 2022 to ponder these questions, come to agreement on shared principles, and draw a roadmap for a burgeoning social innovation ecosystem at Georgia Tech and beyond.  Read the full article HERE.


How do we disseminate knowledge and make it accessible beyond the academic sphere?

University campuses are just one place where scholarship and learning happen, which means that we can turn to sites beyond the classroom to engage students and foster meaningful reflections. Last semester in my FREN 4813 special topics class, “In-Humanity: Cruelty/Literature/Media,” I invited students to visit a museum in Atlanta that aligned with the themes of our course. This exercise in experiential and kinesthetic learning allowed students to gain a deeper understanding of the questions with which we began the course: What is violence and what forms does it take? How do diverse modes of cultural production (literature, poetry, photography, film) respond to various types of violence and their aftermath? Complementing our in-class discussions that responded to assigned readings, films, and podcasts, the museum visit provided a different narrative mode and method through which to process and…


SLS, in collaboration with Modern Languages, is excited to offer a new “Global at Home” summer program in May and June that will give students the opportunity to learn about and experience the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as they are playing out around the global and here in our own backyard of Atlanta. Taught by Kelly Comfort from Modern Languages and Jennifer Hirsch from SLS, the program will feature case studies from all continents as well as a major service-learning project in collaboration with artist-activist Charmaine Minniefield, applying the SDGs to her New Freedom Project in the King Historic District and historic South-View Cemetery.

Photo courtesy of Charmaine Minnifield

Both courses in the program count towards the…


A recent article published by the Atlanta Journal Constitution highlights recent data from the United States Census Bureau that shows that Atlanta has the highest income inequality among large U.S. cities. Experts cite Atlanta's "entrenched racial disparities, which took root generations ago."  SLS partner Center for Civic Innovation described this in a recent newsletter as "a glaring picture into the continued tale of two cities." With our focus on equity, justice, and social sustainability, SLS continues to support our partners and communities in Atlanta to help make our city more equitable and sustainable.  Read the full AJC article…


In 2017, GT Serve-Learn-Sustain co-launched RCE Greater Atlanta – a multi-stakeholder, regional, United Nations-affiliated sustainability education network focused on advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through education and training. The network offers multiple opportunities for students, faculty, and community, government, and business partners to learn and grow together – both professionally and personally – and work towards making the Greater Atlanta region a more equitable and sustainable place.

We are excited to share two upcoming opportunities:

RSVP BY JAN. 16: At this link

Our in-person RCE Quarterly Meetings are making their comeback! Please join us. All our welcome - spread the word!

FEATURING:


The Office of Undergraduate Education recently celebrated some Fall 2022 graduates, with an article highlighting students who have participated in or worked for one or more OUE programs during their time at Tech.  SLS is especially proud to highlight Min Sol Lee (B.S., ISyE), who recently worked for us as a Public Interest Technology Fellow. 

Min Sol stated about her time at SLS, "I learned a lot through SLS. The courses I took through SLS, Summer Internship, and the Public Interest Technology (PIT) work I did with fellow students essentially helped me be a better person by breaking the implicit bias that still existed regardless of how open-minded I tried to be and taught me to be in many ways.
 
Over the summer, I worked with Grove Park Foundation (GPF), a non-profit organization located in the Grove Park neighborhood in Atlanta, with a…