Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 67.29
Liaison Jennifer Andrews
Submission Date Aug. 2, 2011
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.0

University of New Hampshire
IN-1: Innovation 1

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Sara McKinstry
Associate Director
Sustainability Institute at UNH
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

A brief description of the innovative policy, practice, program, or outcome :

Sustainability Internships:

1. The Sustainability Internship Program (SIP) is a collaborative effort between the University Office of Sustainability and the University Advising and Career Center to provide students with outside-the-classroom learning about sustainability while gaining valuable hands-on experience in the workforce. Since its formation in 2008, SIP has been responding to the global challenges of today by mentoring the leaders of tomorrow. By participating in SIP, students also make great networking connections. The Program is open to all UNH students from all majors. Previous SIP-employer partnerships range from Carbon Solutions New England to Clean Air-Cool Planet, the Green Alliance to Seacoast Eat Local, The USDA Forest Service to the University Office of Sustainability, NH Department of Environmental Services to NH Businesses for Social Responsibility, and many more. Using a learning community model, SIP students come together three times during the semester for roundtable discussions to share their experiences, interact with guest speakers with expertise on sustainability, watch films, and reflect on readings selected by SIP coordinators. Throughout their internship experience, SIP students also share and reflect on their experiences by blogging on the SIP blog (www.unhinterns.com). Finally, students summarize their SIP experience by presenting to employers, fellow SIP/UNH students, faculty, friends, and family at the annual Undergraduate Research Conference (URC) at UNH. Upon successful completion of SIP, students are awarded a letter of recommendation from UNH’s Chief Sustainability Officer Tom Kelly.

2. UNH Carsey Institute Social Innovation Internship Program

UN's 8-week Social Innovation Internship: (1) connects students to leading for-profit and nonprofit organizations for a rigorous and meaningful summer internship; (2) provides UNH training in social entrepreneurship; (3) supports students to mobilize their peers when they return to campus in the fall. All this, along with a $2300 stipend!

Internship sites include:

CCA Global Partners (online platform for nonprofits)
Holase (engineering)
MoJo, a.k.a. Moms & Jobs (operations)
More than Wheels (social media strategy)
New Hampshire Community Loan Fund (small business prospect loan pipeline)
Pax World (sustainability research)
Revolution Energy, a Green Launching Pad winner (marketing/education)
ROC USA (marketing)
Stonyfield Farm


A letter of affirmation from an individual with relevant expertise:
The website URL where information about the innovation is available :
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

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