Stonehill College
IN-2: Innovation 2

The Farm at Stonehill was established grow produce and flowers with and for the local community. The Farm’s Manager also teaches courses and invites other faculty to utilize The Farm as a living laboratory to teach about sustainability through a number of different lenses. During the fall 2015 semester, five Stonehill College faculty members took part in the Campuses for Environmental Stewardship (CES) grant program, teaching courses in a range of subjects from environmental science to studio art to feminist philosophy. Faculty and students involved in CES grant activities came together around issues and themes of environmental justice. They completed in-class projects, attended group workshops and events, and worked with the Farm at Stonehill and other community partners. Stonehill used an interdisciplinary approach that succeeded in making an array of environmental sustainability topics available both to students and to the broader campus community. Topics included environmental stewardship, environmental justice, ecofeminism, ecological footprints and understanding how lifestyle choices affect environmental health, recycling and reuse of materials, sustainable human activity, and water usage.

Six courses in a range of disciplines were impacted by CES efforts: The Origin of Resources: From Farm to Studio (environmental science, fine arts); The Story of Stonehill’s Water (environmental science, political science); Ecology, Theologies, and Worldviews (biology); Sequential Imagery (fine arts); Sustainable 3-D Design (fine arts); and This Is What Feminism Looks Like (philosophy). Students enrolled in these courses participated in a variety of projects and programs aimed at increasing their understanding of issues around environmental stewardship and sustainability. Students and faculty also participated in a variety of shared projects, including: • A workshop on canning, fermentation, and food preservation led by a local chef and farmer. • A lecture on edible insects as a potential food source and a corresponding cooking competition where participants learned to incorporate protein-rich insects into a meal. • A knit-in that demonstrated knitting techniques and created hats for premature infants at the UMass Memorial neonatal intensive care unit. • An exhibition and opening reception at Stonehill’s Carole Calo Gallery entitled “Down to Earth,” featuring artists whose work centers on environmental themes. Throughout the semester, students in all classes made use of the Farm at Stonehill, which served as a living laboratory for environmental stewardship efforts, as well as a campus resource for the many CES course-based projects. Individual courses also forged community partnerships that included sustainable-living communities, local K-8 Catholic schools, and water preservation sites/organizations. An end-of-semester event featured presentations on the sustainability projects students undertook in each course, allowing them to share and discuss individual projects.