University of Wisconsin-River Falls
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Camp Badger: June 19-25, 2016 https://eyo.engr.wisc.edu/ This youth summer camp run as a partnership with UW-Madison. Eighth graders reside on the UWRF campus for a week of activities designed to inspire studies and careers in the fields of science, engineering, mathematics, and technology. Need-based scholarships are available, and members of underrepresented groups are encouraged to apply. The transformative experience relies on collaborations with several campus departments and area business and agencies. Sustainability is woven throughout, including tours of utilities that provide clean and waste water treatment and a sustainability focused campus scavenger hunt. Students are housed in Ames Suites, a green building that been awarded LEED-NC v2009 Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). A tour of the building and presentation about its green features kicks off the week. 2016 was the last year for this partnership on campus.

Youth Leadership Congress: https://www.uwrf.edu/ContinuingEducation/YLC.cfm This youth summer camp is a partnership with the Wisconsin Electric Cooperatives Association (WECA) and it’s designed to advance the cooperative business model and sustain active engagement within the member-owner community of rural electric providers. Cooperatives allow members to get services otherwise not available. Success is dependent upon people working together to solve a common problem. As such, camp activities include sessions on leadership skills, community solar, a day in the life of a lobbyist, and small group work on realistic case studies. Participants are high school students from rural Wisconsin areas with limited access to precollege experiences. Their attendance is sponsored by their local electric cooperative.

The Kinnickinnic River, designated as an “Outstanding Resource Water” by the Wisconsin Legislature, faces ongoing pressures and changes related to land use, population growth, environmental degradation, and climate change. In response, a multitude of scientific research has been initiated at various locations throughout the watershed in an effort to understand these issues and promote sustainability and resilience. However, the large number of projects across multiple fields of inquiry has made it difficult to coordinate research interests and engage the community about the magnitude of ongoing projects. Successful coordination of research and integration of scientific findings into management practices hinges on trusted relationships between stakeholders and UWRF researchers to identify existing projects, information needs, and how information is to be delivered. Thus, the goal of the Kinni Consortium (KC) is to link campus-wide social-ecological research efforts taking place at UWRF with external agencies or organizations, actively communicating with the public about watershed issues, and provide undergraduate students opportunities to learn and practice research skills. Partners in this effort include the Carpenter St. Croix Valley Nature Center, the Kinnickinnic River Land Trust, Kitty Anderson Youth Science Center, Pierce County Land Conservation, Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Croix County Land Conservation, St. Croix Watershed Research Station, Trout Unlimited, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and the U.S. Forest Service http://kinniconsortium.org/index.html

St. Croix Summit: UWRF hosts the annual St. Croix Summit each year in partnership with the St. Croix River Association. The St. Croix Summit is a conference dedicated to presenting information about the health of the St. Croix River and its watershed.