DePaul University
ER-12: Sustainability Immersive Experience

Study Abroad: From the 2011-2012 brochures, one program stood out as offering students a sustainability immersive experience: • Mexico City - December 2011: The program includes a course on “Green Cities” that examines “land use, transportation, economic development, energy and climate change” drawing on policy and practices for its assessments. It also explored community development and socio-cultural aspects of sustainability. This Program is led by Hugh Bartling (Public Policy) and Daniel Makagan (Communication). In addition, the committee identified a recent Study Abroad program that offered a sustainability immersion experience that was not being offered in 2011: • Kenya - December 2009, December 2010: The program explicitly examined sustainable development by working with the Green Belt Movement to map forest resources, plant trees, and assess the social and economic impact of environmental degradation and changing agricultural and conservation practices. This program was led by Patrick McHaffie (Geography) in collaboration with the Steans Center in its first year. In December 2010, the program was led by Patrck McHaffie (Geography) and Lisa Pecot-Hebert (Communication). It is evident from this information that DePaul’s Study Abroad Program has offered DePaul students a sustainability immersive experience in the past three years. University Internship Program (UIP) The UIP oversaw Internships, that students could take for course credit, that met the definition of sustainability: • Metropolitan Water Reclamation District • City of Chicago's Dept of Zoning and Land Use Planning • Partners for Sacred Places • Garden Quarter Neighborhood Resource • Climate Cycle • The Land Conservancy of McHenry County • Friends of the Global Fight • Congress for New Urbanism • Pilsen Neighbors Community Counsel • Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study of Conservation of Apes at Lincoln Park Zoo • Quit For Health at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine - smoking cessation research project • The Land Conservancy • Greenola In addition, the following sustainability-focused organizations have posted internships to the DePaul University Career Center, and its on-line searchable database of positions, in the Fall 2007-08 to Fall 2010-2011 period: • Active Transportation Alliance • Biodiversity Project • Chicago Gateway Green • Congress for the New Urbanism • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) • Greenpeace • Illinois Solar Energy Association • The Nature Conservancy • Organic School Project • Upwardly Global It is evident from this information that the University Internship Program has offered DePaul students a sustainability immersive experience in the past three years. Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning: The Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning at DePaul University partners with over 300 community-based organizations and non-profit organizations in the Chicago area. Students complete coursework by engaging in service learning immersive experiences with these off-campus groups. Many of these offer students a sustainability immersive experience. Examples include the following: I. Steans Center Partnership with Little Village Environmental Justice Organization: The Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning maintains a long-term community partnership with Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) on Chicago’s southwest side. LVEJO (lvejo.org) is a grassroots organization that works to improve the environment and living conditions for residents of Little Village and throughout Chicago. Since 2002, a number of courses at DePaul have partnered with LVEJO to support the organization with service learning assignments. Professor Kelly Tzoumis’ Public Policy Studies courses on environmental justice and environmental policy have been partnering LVEJO since 2004. Students focus on a number of LVEJO campaigns including those addressing the presence of a coal-fired power plant that contributes to high asthma rates in young children, demands for more green space, and organizing to improve the public transit systems in the neighborhood. A number of other departments/programs (e.g. Anthropology) have employed community-based research to assist LVEJO in understanding how to improve their programs in order to better impact the community socially and environmentally. II. Steans Center Partnership with Gary Comer Youth Center (GCYC) – Green Teens Program: Since 2009, the Steans Center has had a partnership with the Gary Comer Youth Center’s Green Teens Program. GCYC is in the Greater Grand Crossing Neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side as is considered to be a food desert according to research conducted on urban food access in Chicago. The organization serves hundreds of low-income youth through programs geared toward: 1) education, technology, and careers; 2) cultural and performing arts; 3) physical fitness, social recreation, health and nutrition; and 4) civic engagement, social responsibility, and leadership. GCYC organizes its efforts around the explicit goal of a 100 percent high school graduation rate, with member students prepared to pursue college or other positive postsecondary opportunities. 78 percent of Greater Grand Crossing residents live below poverty level. The center’s mission is to provide the support necessary for all students to finish high school and to be ready for college and careers. The center engages youth in learning about environment and agriculture as part of its after school enrichment program. A central feature of their facility is an 8,100 square foot green roof designed to encourage youth to grow vegetables,flowers, herbs, and grasses. More than 1,200 pounds of produce is grown on the rooftop and distributed to the community or sold to restaurants. An onsite kitchen teaches youth culinary skills and educates them about healthy eating. Recently, the center has installed a 1.5 acre urban farm in a Brownfield across the street from the facility. In 2009, DePaul and GCYC created the Environmental Stewardship Community Internship Program. The program is a partnership between the Steans Center, DePaul’s Environmental Science Department and the Gary Comer Youth Center. Funding for the program is provided by the Morrison Family Foundation. The Steans Center facilitates the Environmental Stewardship Community Internship Program for DePaul students enrolled in DePaul’s Environmental Science and Studies Program. Two full-time summer interns work to support youth in GCYC Green Teen Program. While working in the gardens, DePaul students introduce GCYC youth to the college academic programs and variety of careers in environmental science. DePaul students are in turn exposed to urban agriculture and environmental education practices in underserved communities. Youth participants visit DePaul University to learn about the Environmental Studies program and visit the institutions Leed Gold Certified science building including a tour of the rooftop greenhouse laboratory. III. Steans Center Partnership with Puerto Rican Cultural Center (PRCC), Pedro Albizu Campos High School (PACHS)& CO-OP Humboldt Park (CO-OP - Public Health and Community Food Systems): The Steans Center has partnered with PRCC, PACH, and CO-OP in numerous ways since 2002.The latter two organizations are subsidiaries of the PRCC which is currently coordinating a full-fledged effort to green the east side of Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. The effort is part of a broader campaign to increase the health and wellness of the community given high rates of obesity and diabetes. Among other projects, through assistance of the Steans Center, PRCC has partnered with Dr. Sungsoon (Julie) Hwang and her students in DePaul’s Geography Department to document community food resources in the neighborhood which has been categorized by scholars as a food desert. A report by Dr. Hwang is available at: http://prcc-chgo.org/wpcontent/uploads/2011/05/GEO242_Aut1011_PRCC_Final_Report.pdf Dr. Hwang worked initially with data collected by Dr. Ginger Hofman’s Anthropology students on the availability of food in retail stores through Humboldt Park. Dr. Howard Rosing and his Community Service Studies students later contributed data on restaurants and street food vendors. The research has been used to support grant applications for development of a rooftop gardening program and urban farm. The first of several rooftop green houses was completed in Spring 2011. A recent PRCC report entitled “The Greening of a Food Desert” cites the map created by DePaul’s Geography and Anthropology students. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/50784786/The-Greening-of-a-Food-Desert; see page 5) Additionally, during Spring 2011, students in Dr. Rosing’s course on community development began collaborating with PACHS urban agriculture coordinator and the Director of CO-OP to conduct a community garden asset mapping project. The project will document existing community gardens and potential resources in the neighborhood that can be potentially accessed to support community gardening. The project is part of a broader Community Food System Initiative of the Steans Center involving community garden asset mapping in four low-income communities of Chicago (including with LVEJO, see above). The goal of the initiative is to increasingly channel DePaul educational resources toward urban agriculture and community gardening projects in support of environmental and social justice efforts throughout the city. It is evident from this information that DePaul’s Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning consistently offers DePaul students a sustainability immersive experience.

University Internship Program: http://www.careercenter.depaul.edu/common/uipcoopcourses.aspx Steans Center: http://steans.depaul.edu/