Roosevelt University
IN-1: Innovation 1

The SUST Student Symposium is a biannual event in which undergraduate students in Roosevelt’s Sustainability Studies program (est. 2010) share their recent internship work, study abroad experiences, and/or independent research results in a forum open to all RU students, faculty, and staff as well as the general public. Co-sponsored by the Sustainability Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Physical Resources, the Symposium is a showcase for student achievement and an excellent means of encouraging other students to pursue their own research and internship activities. Students' presentations are archived on the SUST at RU Blog and thus provide an important reference and recruitment tool for prospective students, as well as concrete examples of successful internship and research projects. One particular innovation of this Symposium is how it serves as a culmination of student internship work that is also integrated with student' writing original work for the widely-read SUST at RU Blog. As part of their academic internship requirements, students may write periodic essays/field reports for the blog in lieu of keeping a more conventional journal. These pieces then become useful writing samples for the students' portfolios to use in job searches and graduate school applications. Fall 2015 Symposium: https://rusustain.wordpress.com/2015/11/22/fall-2015-sust-student-symposium-glaciers-in-iceland-sustainability-in-chicago/ Example of student writing on internship experiences: https://rusustain.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/sustainability-at-the-field-museum-sust-major-laura-miller-hill-reports-on-her-summer-internship/

Since its initiation in the fall of 2013, the SUST Symposium has provided a unique interdisciplinary and student-centered forum at Roosevelt for discussing sustainability education, empirical research, and community-based practice. Symposium presenters have not only honed their presentation skills and built up their resumés with this work, they have used the research and information from their experiences to contribute concretely to the sustainability efforts of the institution; notably, by helping conceive, lead, and draft RU's first Strategic Sustainability Plan during the 2014-15 year. In the spring, the Symposium is held during Earth Week and serves as an important showcase of students' sustainability-focused research and projects, thus enhancing university an community engagement.