Scurrying into the next session, Connecting Campus to the Wider Community I realized as I looked around at the established round tables of students that I would be forced on the periphery. However, also on the border was Jonathon, a graduate student of Denver University.With only 8 months out of the Peace Corps in Ukraine, Jonathon is focusing his graduate degree on sustainability and community development.
In Ukraine, Jonathon worked with local businesses and tourism facilities on partnering to create more beneficial programs. He’s is taking his experience abroad and applying it to a program based in Portland, Oregon. The organization is Oregon Environmental Council. The council focuses on a variety of issues related to sustainability, but Jonathon is working with immigrants in the area, many of whom are eastern European, to find sustainable solutions. He is helping to promote alternative transportation methods and locate local farmers markets for them along with many other sustainability opportunities.
As the tables of students were discussing ways to connect to the broader communities, Jonathon and I discussed successes and failures in programs that we worked on and are currently conducting. The experiences are different, but the message is the same. We need to create a more sustainable lifestyle.
When the group came back together, students shared ideas for partnering and establishing relationships from creating a network of schools within the state to partnering with local youth groups. The idea is to form local partnerships to broaden the spectrum of sustainability efforts and education.
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