SEAHO Report - Winter 2014 - (Page 19)

SEAHO Features Creswell's Green Team: A Spotlight on the Global Engagement Learning Community By Shanice Christopher, University of Georgia The University of Georgia is not new to the implementation of Living and Learning Communities. Entering its tenth year, UGA's University Housing department has hosted over forty types of communities, all with varying themes. The goal of Living and Learning Communities is to ease the transition of first-year students and connect the classroom to campus and the local community. Each community is comprised of up to twenty students who have a specific area of interest. Students reside together, take academic courses, and participate in enriching extracurricular activities. All first-year learning communities are housed in Creswell Hall, a first-year high-rise hall. 2013-2014 themes include Pre-Law, Business, Music, Biochemistry, Nutrition, Mass Communication, Climate & Sports, and Global Engagement. Each community is facilitated by a lead instructor and a Peer Advisor who is responsible for building and maintaining community within the group. The Global Engagement Learning Community made great strides early in the academic year. The community meets weekly to explore cultural issues, the meaning of global citizenship, and the fundamentals of service learning. Pratt Cassity, Director of UGA's Center for Community Design and Preservation and Lead Instructor for the community, said that the community's topic was inspired by immense reflection about how sustainability has reached national attention. He wants students to "explore the connection between consumption and reuse and extrapolate the cycle from soil to body to a larger, global scale". Specifically, the issue of interest for this academic year is local sustainability and food security. Students in the Global Engagement Learning Community recently took a trip to a local recycling center. During their visit, they participated in a private tour and got a closer look at how trash is processed and used for a greater purpose. Students were taught to reduce their waste and identify the process in which everyday trash is used as an alternative energy source. Subsequent trips inspired students to apply for a Campus Sustainability Grant, a competitive grant program for student-proposed projects that advance sustainability though education, research, and service. The Global Engagement community is the first learning community to win a campus grant and break ground for a project that will affect campus operations. With the grant award, the community is on track to create UGA's first residence hall composting system. Residents will be encouraged to discover that ordinary items such as dryer lint, old cereal, and paper towels can be recycled into soil for local farms and food sources. Residents will also be encouraged to be environmentally sensitive and learn how everyday waste can positively affect the local community and world at large. University Housing, Campus Kitchen, UGAarden, the Office of Service Learning, and the Office of Sustainability at the University of Georgia support the continued activities of the Global Engagement Learning Community. Our departments and students are excited to see what they do next to keep our campus green and positively influence the local Athens community. Such advancements confirm the in-depth and intentional experiences of students who engage in living and learning programs. SEAHO Report Winter 2014 19

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SEAHO Report - Winter 2014