UMaine Environmental Stewardship Service-Learning Group, Mitchell Center Talk Series, 10/26/2015

Title: Where service learning meets sustainability: Connecting classrooms across campus and with communities for stewardship and civic engagement

Speakers:
UMaine Environmental Stewardship Service-Learning Group (Claire Sullivan,Dan Dixon, Cindy Isenhour, Sandra DeUrioste-Stone, Bridie McGreavy, Sharon Klein)

UMaine’s comprehensive sustainability efforts improve lives and communities throughout the state ofMaine and beyond. One of UMaine’s educational goals is to inspire core sustainability values in all its graduates while at the same time inspiring them to become the next generation of environmental leaders and innovators, skilled in ways that promote responsible stewardship of human, natural, and financial resources.

UMaine is part of the Campuses for Environmental Stewardship (CES) project aimed at integrating service learning pedagogy into environmental stewardship courses, encouraging students to work with community partners on issues of pressing environmental concern. Such service-learning projects will stimulate community-campus partnerships and teach students to apply their knowledge to real-world problems.

The CES project will cultivate diversified skill sets amongst participants via cross-course interactions at multiple academic levels and will provide professional development opportunities for associated faculty. This team will develop an interdisciplinary, coordinated model that can be sustained at UMaine, involving common service-learning projects, partners and events, opportunities for mentorship, as well as culminating student-led community presentations. Plans are underway to study the various impacts of this model in order to share and develop best practices. This group of faculty collectively believes in active learning as the most effective way for students to understand/retain knowledge and to be inspired to create positive change.

For information about the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, go to https://umaine.edu/mitchellcenter/.