An article recently published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution highlights work being done by the UrbanHeatATL project, a cross-disciplinary collaboration empowering students and the Atlanta community through mapping extreme heat in underserved communities. The initiative aims to use this data, collected by community members, to further environmental and climate justice in Atlanta. This summer, multiple SLS interns are participating in the project through Georgia Tech's Global Change Program. Read more about this exciting initiative HERE.
"I feel the UN SDGs should be used as a teaching tool in higher education to encourage critical thinking and provide opportunities for students to build meaningful connections between local issues in their own communities and global-scale goals. When you know better, you do better, and incorporating SDGs into coursework allows students to engage with culturally relevant pedagogy that champions our identities and teaches us how to solve problems that resonate with our communities and the world around us."
- Margaret (Meg) Sanders, MSEEM graduate student, School of Public Policy
As this student illustrates, connecting your course content to the UN SDGs provides a powerful framework for students to see how what they are learning can help set them up for a career that makes a positive impact on their communities.
…From a young age, I have been taught that I have the responsibility and ability to make a positive impact in my community. Coming from Arizona I was unsure about the volunteer opportunities I could take part in while living in Atlanta. Upon hearing about the two field trips to Truly Living Well Center for Natural urban Agriculture and Grove Park Foundation through the Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS), I was intrigued. These organizations seemed to be making a big difference in areas I am genuinely interested in. I registered for the event immediately.
Our first stop was Truly Living Well. The farm was lush and peaceful, tucked in the middle of the busy city, near the Atlanta University Center. We stepped out of our bus and were greeted by an outgoing and informative tour guide, Naimah Abdullah, the Engagement Manager. Not only did she tour us around the farm while teaching us about the crops grown, but she also mentioned the many volunteer, research, and internship…
This Spring I was blessed with the opportunity to participate in an Undoing Racism Community Organizing Workshop appetizer through the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. The session was donated to the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA) with whom I am working this Summer through the Serve-Learn-Sustain Summer Internship Program.
A born New Orleanian, I recognize the trailblazing efforts and challenges faced by racial justice organizers in New Orleans, so participation in this seminar was especially important to me. Raised in Buffalo, I found myself using the knowledge and skills gained through this training following the tragic racially motivated mass shooting in May to inform family members and members of my community of systemic racism. This training taught me how to best steward and maintain conversations about race and privilege that can be emotional and uncomfortable but integral to achieve progress and cultivate understanding.
The session was…
SLS summer interns Juliette Goff and Jennie Baker write about their experience attending the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot's 20th Annual Family Food Fest, held in celebration of Juneteenth and Father's Day, through their work with Garry Harris, director of Center for Sustainable Communities, a signature partner of SLS.
This past Sunday, the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot hosted its 20th Annual Family Food Fest for Father’s Day. As Father’s Day landed on Juneteenth this year, there was lots of extra celebration and appreciation for African-American culture and experiences. The event began with a procession of the cooks and chefs to the music of African drums. …
The Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business (“Center”) and the Scheller College of Business have selected Kayley Beard as the 2022 recipient of the Vivian Nora Lukens Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship was established to support undergraduate students who are pursuing the Certificate in Sustainable Business. Kayley is passionate about sustainability and how it is implemented in the built environment, businesses, and cities. In May, Kayley graduated from Georgia Tech with a…
The partnerships that SLS staff support between Georgia Tech faculty and community-based organizations get started in a variety of ways. Sometimes, a faculty member gets in touch with us about a great idea for a partnership, requesting some help identifying the right match. At other times, community-based groups find SLS through networks of sustainability and equity professionals such as the RCE Greater Atlanta. About a year ago, we were fortunate to have a new partner find us thanks to the recommendation of our friends at Park Pride. Mary Fernandez, Director of Special Events, Special Projects & Volunteers with Historic Oakland Foundation, reached out to SLS to see if we might help her identify faculty or students at Georgia Tech who could help the historic cemetery better understand and serve the diverse kinds of visitors that enjoy this fascinating park every day. Together, we developed several research…
Several months ago, long-time SLS community partner West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, or WAWA, reached out to SLS to see if we might help identify students with the skills to assist with a project WAWA was engaged in to assess the feasibility of tree planting to mitigate flooding in the Atlanta University Center (AUC) area, home to Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, and Morehouse School of Medicine. WAWA was partnering with Eco-Action (one of SLS’ Greater Atlanta Community Science Collaboratory partners) on a “citizen science,” now often called “community science,” project to determine how many large trees could be planted in the study area. When Darryl Haddock, WAWA’s Education Director, described the project’s need for a student who could photoshop out power lines and photoshop in mature trees, for use evaluating the project’s benefits, we immediately thought of Bits of Good. Bits of Good is a Georgia Tech student organization that connects students with…
Once a marker for the new, industrialized South, at one point home to Georgia’s National Championship winning football team, and more recently a research powerhouse, Georgia Tech has had many identities since its inception following the Civil War. It grew alongside the city of Atlanta — one becoming a pillar in American higher education and one becoming the cultural capital of the South. Recent efforts by a number of Georgia Tech departments, administrators, and community partners are looking to magnify each other’s strengths for mutual benefit by establishing the Georgia Institute of Technology as an Anchor Institution in the Atlanta region.
Anchor Institutions are defined as “place-based (unlikely to move) [institutions] that have a strong self interest in ensuring that the place where they are located thrive… grounded in long-term partnerships with their own local communities… that reduce disparities and advance the the public interest along with institutional interests…
Atticus Lemahieu is a graduating 5th year Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Student. He has worked with SLS as a student fellow since his second semester at Tech. Now, as he prepares to graduate, Atticus reflects on his time with the Center and how it shaped his college path.
Over the last four and a half years, I have had the incredible opportunity to work closely with SLS as a student fellow. In my second semester as a student, I began working with SLS after learning about the work they did while I was a senior in highschool. At the time, I was stepping into my curriculum as an environmental engineering student, making connections with the campus and surrounding community, and just starting out my college career. Now, as I am looking at “Graduation” circled in red on my calendar with less than a week away, I can do nothing but be amazed at the impact SLS has had both on the Institute and its community partners, but also my personal and professional…
As we grow closer to 2030 (the deadline for the United Nations’ Agenda for Sustainable Development), the job market for sustainability-related careers will also grow. The ongoing climate crisis, increasing awareness around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and changes in employee and consumer ethics are few of the many reasons why businesses and organizations are adopting sustainable practices or making sustainability the primary focus of their work.
Sustainability is also an increasingly popular area of interest amongst current students, who will serve as the next generation of change-makers. It is important to note that sustainability is a ‘lens’ - a compilation of mindsets and approaches, and therefore it encompasses many different and unique career paths.
When it comes to searching for these types of careers, it can be difficult to know where to start. SLS’s …
Caption: A view of the Gender Equality Exhibition currently on display at The Kendeda Building, Monday - Friday 7 am - 10 pm.
What is Gender Equality: Reimagining Our Future through Art and Technology?
For the past seven months, I’ve had the privilege of curating and organizing the art and research exhibition, Gender Equality: Reimagining Our Future Through Art and Technology. The process started with a suggestion from my GRA supervisor, Dr. Rebecca Watts Hull, that I combine my Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) and master’s project research to coordinate an event around Sustainable Development Goal 5, Gender…
In a recent article in Saporta Report, Georgia Tech associate professor Carl DiSalvo writes about the creation of DataWorks, part of the Constellations Center for Equity in Computing at Georgia Tech, in the College of Computing. Through DataWorks, young adults are hired and trained in entry-level data science skills, such as cleaning and formatting data, using tools ranging from off-the shelf spreadsheet software to custom scripts in programming languages such as Python.
Read more about this exciting initiative HERE.
In a recent article in Saporta Report, Georgia Tech associate professor Carl DiSalvo writes about the creation of DataWorks, part of the Constellations Center for Equity in Computing at Georgia Tech, in the College of Computing. Through DataWorks, young adults are hired and trained in entry-level data science skills, such as cleaning and formatting data, using tools ranging from off-the shelf spreadsheet software to custom scripts in programming languages such as Python.
Read more about this exciting initiative HERE.
As spring semester draws to a close, we wanted to highlight a couple of ongoing, exciting opportunities, as well as one brand new course for your consideration during Phase I registration!
If you are contemplating a minor, take a close gander at the SLS-affiliated Sustainable Cities Minor! The minor in Sustainable Cities emphasizes sustainability, community engagement, and social justice. It provides students with a deep learning experience that integrates classroom learning and real-world, community-based project experience in creating sustainable communities, with a focus on the built urban environment. You can learn more about the minor, and all the details on how to integrate into your present course of study, by visiting SCARP’s information page. The course listing on that…
What makes for strong university-community relationships? How can students “give back” as collaborators not would-be saviors? What are some specific service opportunities that will welcome students who are new to Atlanta/have no prior experience?
The one-credit course “Engaging Global Communities” explores the above questions through a class that brings together students from Emory, Morehouse, and Georgia Tech, with three Clarkston based community partners—Re’Generation Movement, Georgia Piedmont Technical College’s ESL Program, and the Clarkston Community Center (CCC)—for class sessions with instructors/guest lecturers from five metro Atlanta universities. I co-lead the course with Johannes Kleiner (Associate Director of Civic and Community Engagement, Emory) and Philip Ojo (Professor of French, Agnes…
Earlier this month, members of the fall 2021 Faculty Learning Community (FLC) on Teaching with the SDGs engaged instructors across Georgia in this exciting topic through a video presentation followed by a live discussion, as part of the University System of Georgia (USG) 2022 Teaching & Learning Conference. Along with co-facilitators Carol Subiño Sullivan, assistant director for Faculty Teaching and Learning Initiatives with Georgia Tech’s CTL, Rebecca Watts Hull, a service-learning and partnerships specialist with SLS, and Mandy McGrew, education specialist, Scholarly Teaching with Kennesaw’s CETL, five instructors at Georgia Tech and four at KSU developed a workshop for the USG conference entitled "From HIPs to SDGs: Why the UN Sustainable Development Goals should be in your course and how to get started." Workshop participants from USG institutions across the state viewed a recorded presentation and then attended a virtual, synchronous session to ask questions and learn how…
Serve-Learn-Sustain is co-leading an exciting new project! “Public Interest Technology (PIT) for First-Year Engineers,” is a collaboration of the Writing and Communication Program and Serve-Learn-Sustain; its co-principal investigators are Andy Frazee, the WCP’s Director, and Ruthie Yow, an SLS Service Learning and Partnership Specialist. The project is funded by a GT “AMP” (Amplify Momentum Project) grant—one of seven recipients across the Institute—and it connects first-year engineers to community-based experiential learning themed around technology for the public good. Our initiative brings together four community partners, four Brittain Fellows in the Writing and Communication Program, and four College of Engineering faculty members. These collaborators will together design a PIT- and service-learning-infused syllabus appropriate for all first-years, but of particular interest to engineering students.…
Earlier this year, Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) was announced as a winner of the 2020 Campus Sustainability Achievement Award by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). The award, which honors higher education institutions for successful implementation of projects that advance sustainability, recognized SLS’s Affiliated Courses Program. Over the past several months, AASHE has hosted a webinar series led by 2020 Award Winners. SLS’s session on March 31, co-hosted by Ruthie Yow and Rebecca Watts Hull, will explore the successes of SLS's affiliated programs in hopes that other Colleges and Institutions can benefit as well. The webinar will focus on cultivating relationships with faculty, supporting course development, equipping community partners, and more.
…Interested in social innovation but don't know where to start? Wondering how you can incorporate social innovation into your curricular and co-curricular experience at Georgia Tech? As we head into Phase I registration season, with the release of the course schedule for summer and fall next week, we want to recap our blog post series on social innovation.
Part 1: Social Innovation - Where Do I Start?
In the first part of our series, Dori Pap, Managing Director of the Institute for Leadership and Social Impact, dives into ways to explore and learn about social innovation through courses and programs at Tech, and how to put social innovation into practice.
Part 2: What Is Social Innovation, Anyway?
In the second part of our series, SLS Director Jennifer Hirsch explores models of social innovation…