In Dekalb County, the refugee resettlement community of Clarkston is known as the most diverse square mile in America. Here, many parents work long hours and late shifts, and a high percentage of families have only one car or less. Because of this lack of time and transportation, taking their children to after-school activities can often be a challenge.
This summer, six Clarkston teens took part in a pilot program at Georgia Tech aiming to improve mobility options. The four-week Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) institute was led by Assistant Professor Allen Hyde in the School of History and Sociology, along with Clarkston community partner UPPER90 and GT sustainability initiative Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS), which provided funding. Program assessment was carried out by …
Each summer, SLS runs a paid internship program that focuses on providing practical experience for students in supporting solutions for sustainable communities, while providing our partners with support and resources. Below we highlight the experience of two students from our Summer 2020 program, whose internship experiences translated into staff positions with their internship host partner.
Rachel Dekom, (History, Science, and Technology, 2021)
My internship with Carrie’s Closet of Georgia was extremely challenging, but so rewarding. I was Carrie’s Closet’s first intern, and I was tasked with getting the newly-formed advocacy component of the organization off the ground. It was difficult, especially during a global pandemic, to start a significant child welfare advocacy push from the ground up. But although there are challenges inherent in being a small grassroots…
This past summer, I had the opportunity to intern with the UrbanHeatATL team. UrbanHeatATL is a community partnership between researchers at Georgia Tech and Spelman College, local partner organizations, and community scientists. The goal of UrbanHeatATL is to map accurate, surface-level heat data in Atlanta. In March, UrbanHeatATL presented a panel of urban heat experts during the Atlanta Science Festival (Dr. Marshall Shepherd, Dr. Jeremy Hoffman, and Dr. Jalonne White-Newsome). The experts shared important insight on what causes urban heat, what can be done to mitigate heat, and how communities in Atlanta are affected by the urban heat island effect. While I found the panel informative, I (and a few other UrbanHeatATL interns) noticed it was missing input from community members with firsthand experiences of Atlanta's urban heat island.
To better incorporate community voices into UrbanHeatATL’s work, I…
What is community-based social innovation? What does it look like in action? Where does it happen and how do I get involved?
Students in the SLS Internship Program and the IGniTe summer program’s sustainable communities track were invited to ask- and answer – these questions through their June 26th tour with Director of Impact, Daphne Fowler, at Global Grower’s Decatur-based community garden. Founded in 2010, Global Growers is a Georgia-based nonprofit that partners with more than 300 farmers from diverse backgrounds, including ‘community growers’ who farm on small plots for their families and ‘commercial growers’ who farm to sell at local marketplaces. Global Growers focuses particularly on refugee, immigrant, black, and indigenous growers, supporting them in cultivating the vegetables, fruits, and…
My name is Yassin, and I was an undergraduate student at Georgia Tech from 2015 to 2021. I first heard about the Serve Learn Sustain initiative while taking a database systems course. During one of our classes while discussing the vast realm of work opportunities in computer science, our professor encouraged us to use the skills we were learning towards fostering sustainable communities. She said that if we had an interest in such applications, we could find many opportunities through SLS. Although I was not entirely set on my career at the time, I’ve always been passionate about reducing my impact on the natural environment and had no hesitation signing up for the mailing list. Just a few weeks later, I saw an advertisement promoting an SLS Buzz Course on Universal Design for Sustainable Communities, so I jumped at the chance to learn more about the field! I would soon begin to learn that sustainability encompasses so many more aspects of life beyond natural resources.
The…
Georgia Tech recently achieved a STARS silver rating by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). STARS stands for Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System and is awarded based upon measured success in five key areas of sustainability in higher education – Academics, Engagement, Operations, Planning and Administration, and Innovation and Leadership. The rating system helps benchmark achievements and identify opportunities where faculty, administrators, staff, and students can be effective change agents.
Each year, the ANAK Society presents the ANAK Award to honor a faculty member who has demonstrated “outstanding service to the Institute and to the student body.” This year's co-recipient was SLS Director Dr. Jennifer Hirsch. The ANAK Society also honored a staff recipient for the first time this year, presenting the award to Dr. Benjamin Holton as well. Read more about the award HERE.
SLS partnered last month with Summer and Special Sessions Initiatives to offer iGniTe students an in-person tour of the Kendeda Building. Summer and Special Sessions intern, Lily Arnold, wrote about her experience on the tour:
Recently I had the opportunity to take an official tour of the Kendeda Building here on campus. Before going on this tour, the only thing I knew about the building was the foamy toilets. I didn’t know how they worked or anything like that, just that they foamed up over your deposit and whisk it away unlike a traditional toilet and what I refer to as its WOOSH. Once before the tour I took a solo visit to Kendeda & ended up…
Atlanta has one of the largest wealth gaps in the United States, and it is a racialized one: as of 2017, almost 75 percent of residents living below the poverty line were Black. Sustainable development efforts like the Atlanta BeltLine have been exacerbating inequalities since well before COVID-19. Known as a Black mecca, the region is the birthplace of the Civil Rights movement and also boasts a high concentration of higher education institutions (HEIs) as well as the most Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the country. In 2017, HEIs and other stakeholders banded together to launch a regional network—Regional Centres of Expertise (RCE) Greater Atlanta—that builds on the region's strengths to place equity and justice at the center of sustainable development. This RCE is part of a global network of over 170 United Nations-affiliated RCEs on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) that advance the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through education…
For the past three summers, the SLS internship student cohort has included students in the Smart Community Corps (SCC) program, through our partnership with Partnership for Inclusive Innovation. This summer, using the "pair mode", Georgia Tech SCC students are collaborating with students from other Georgia colleges and universities. Meet the 2021 SCC students HERE.
In order to recognize students for their leadership in sustainability, The Office of Campus Sustainability, Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain, Georgia Tech Global Change Program, Strategic Energy Institute, Atlanta Global Studies Center, and Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business have partnered together to co-sponsor the inaugural Sustainability Student Champion Award. This new student award was presented during Georgia Tech’s week-long Earth Day celebration, centering on the Institute Strategic Plan and Earth Day celebration theme, “Amplify Impact”. A Student Sustainability Champion amplifies impact…
Sustainability educators agree that colleges and universities should support the ability of students to design and lead change in multiple spheres—organizations, communities, states, and internationally. How well are we supporting students in understanding change processes and developing the skills they need to become change makers? Over recent weeks, Service Learning and Partnerships Specialists Rebecca Watts Hull and Ruthie Yow worked with five young energy equity leaders with Metro Atlanta Youth Energy Corps (MAYE Corps) to explore these questions and plan a webinar offered through the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). On June 9, more than 50 participants tuned in to explore this topic with SLS and our MAYE Corps partners Unwanna Etuk, Brittany Judson, Marisol Mendez, Zoie Moore, and Gwyn Rush.
We began by discussing what we mean when we say we “equip students to be change agents.” Does that mean supporting student…
Last Juneteenth, SLS hosted a webinar intended to provide historical background on the meaning and significance of Juneteenth, as well as an overview of how Juneteenth is (or isn’t) recognized by individual states.(You can find the webinar recording, the slide show, and a reflection including student voices here.) In the year since, the politics of race and remembrance have continued to shift and change at the national level; Congress’s passage of a bill to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday is perhaps the most significant- but certainly not the only- indicator of those transformations. Below you’ll find a brief primer on Juneteenth followed by four reflections from my friends and associates…
By now it has become common knowledge that efforts to improve community green space often lead to gentrification and displacement of local residents. A recent article - “Green Gentrification and Health: A Scoping Review,” published in January 2021 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health - co-authored by Dr. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks, Co-founder of West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, Faculty at Spelman College, and Member of RCE Greater Atlanta - examines 15 studies on the health effects of greening initiatives in gentrifying neighborhoods. The abstract summarizes the findings: “Overall, longtime, marginalized residents are negatively impacted by green gentrification as they experience a lower sense of community, feel that they do not belong in green space, and, in many studies, use green space less often than newcomers. Overall, the research in this area…
This spring, SLS affiliated faculty and Brittain Fellow Kent Linthicum was awarded the prestigious American Council of Learned Societies fellowship. Connecting his award to his work, specifically with SLS, Dr. Linthicum stated, “Serve-Learn-Sustain has been critical to my work. Through SLS I’ve been able to talk with students, faculty, and staff who are working hard thinking about environmental justice, climate change, and the end of fossil fuels. For instance, as a teaching fellow in the Kendeda Building I worked with Jeremy Ackerman, Julie Hugonny and Michael Nitsche, to create a new SLS teaching tool, ‘Storytelling Equity,’ which uses narrative as a tool for different disciplines to help them include equity in the work they do. Overall, I feel very fortunate to be part of SLS and its important work.”
While on fellowship, Linthicum plans to finish his book, Crowning Coal: Slavery, Fossil Fuels, and Literature 1755–1865. The book connects the energy and…
Serve-Learn-Sustain’s Summer Internship Program provides sustainability partners throughout Georgia with support, while offering students practical experience working on real-world community-engaged projects. In four years, the program has grown from 15 students in 2018 to this summer’s cohort of 76! A Saporta Report article that shares more about the program through a close look at three 2020 internships is accessible here.
This year’s expanded partnerships include cohorts of interns working on the Smart Sea Level Sensors and Urban Heat Island Projects, under the auspices of the Global Change Program, as well as interns working with a diversity of partners through the Institute for People and Technology (IPaT), including with Georgia Tech's Smart…
With our small staff, SLS could not do what we do without the work that is accomplished by our undergraduate student fellows. Each year, SLS employs 10 - 12 undergraduate students who work with us in various capacities. In addition to daily office work, these students also choose a long-term project to work on over the course of a semester or two, as part of our student fellows program. They work as part of a student cohort, meeting regularly with each other, and with staff to develop and move SLS initiatives and programs forward. This week, we celebrate four of our fellows as they graduate and move on from SLS. We will miss them terribly, but are so proud of their accomplishments and excited for their future endeavors!
Adair Garrett, B.S. Civil Engineering
SLS has truly shaped my college career. As…
Interested in incorporating the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals into your teaching? Building on the SDG course design workshop offered this past semester, the Center for Teaching and Learning and Serve-Learn-Sustain are pleased to offer a second Course Design Studio in June. Design or redesign a course with expert guidance from Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and Serve-Learn-Sustain consultants and input from colleagues across campus. In this virtual experience, participants will access asynchronous modules via Canvas that provide frameworks, models, and structured exercises designed to help them build course elements, including learning goals, assessments, and learning activities. Participants can choose to focus on the fundamentals of backwards course design, integrating the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and/or making…
Georgia Tech's new Strategic Plan calls for us to prepare students to "develop innovative and socially responsible solutions" to today's most pressing global challenges. Inter/transdisciplinary teaching and research, along with a focus on experiential, problem-based service learning are outlined as important action steps towards attaining this goal. Jennifer Hirsch (SLS Director) and Ruthie Yow (SLS Service Learning and Partnerships Specialist) recently wrote this article about how SLS has been developing and implementing transdisciplinary models for teaching and learning since its launch in January 2016.
For the past 12 years, the Ideas to Serve (I2S) Competition organized by the Institute for Leadership and Social Impact (ILSI) at the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business inspires students and recent alumni to think creatively about how to create a better world. Participants explore the root causes of systemic conditions around, and gaps in existing solutions for a social, economic, or environmental issue, often with guidance from a community partner. Some present their problem discovery and others present a solution that addresses those solution gaps to a team of expert judges – many of them practitioners from the social sector. First, second, and third place winners receive a financial prize which they can choose to use to further investigate ways to fill impact gaps. Although the teams worked virtually for the…