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… more
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… more
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… more
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… more
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… more
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… more
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… more
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… more
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… more