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 In their second year, all degree students in the Environment and Community program complete a nine-month
capstone change project. During these change projects, students learn about creating social change by actively engaging with a real-world organization
or community. It is a chance for
students to put into practice many of
the ideas and concepts studied in their first-year courses and to explore new understandings about how to be an effective change agent.
Change projects are as diverse as the students themselves. Students have completed change projects with many different organizational and community partners and have worked on many different topics, including:
Community Visioning Process Broadens Perspectives
Daniel Klempner worked with the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition (DRCC) in a community visioning project to find out what they valued, what they wanted changed and what they wanted preserved about the river valley. He incorporated the voices of river users, the homeless and those who typically are underrepresented in the cleanup process. He assisted the group through a process that gave people the opportunity to illustrate their vision in different ways and allowed for a broad spectrum of perspectives to be heard.
Promoting Green Building Construction Practices in Walla Walla
Hannah Swee joined efforts with the Walla Walla Area Resource Conservation Committee (WWARCC) on their newest project, Build a Green Walla Walla, that promotes green building construction practices. She developed a half-day workshop including local builders, architects and building supply stores to demonstrate which green construction materials were available locally for the construction community and to talk about current green building design projects in the local community.
Collecting Farmers' Voices for Pesticide-free Practices
Kathy Pryor worked with Washington Toxics Coalition (WTC) and Washington state farmers to reduce pesticide use through collaboration with like-minded nonprofits, based on the farmers' needs and vision. She collected stories of farmers' commitments to healthy farming practices and helped increase outreach to local farmers and support future WTC development strategies.
Re-envisioning the Ecological Sustainability of Ballard High School
Devon Hayes and Rachel Lazar collaborated with Ballard High School (BHS) to create an ecological sustainability design map. The intention was to gather input from stakeholders in the Ballard community and compile it into a cohesive, appealing depiction. They worked together with BHS teachers, students and community members to generate ideas around BHS's green potential. In addition, they noted weather patterns, natural geography of the land, existing vegetation and the structural layout of the school to nourish a more holistic vision. From this research, they crafted a design map, to scale, that may be utilized by future generations of BHS students.
City of Tacoma Telecommuting Study
Bill Smith worked with the City manager and senior management team to design and implement a telecommuting study to quantify the reduction in vehicle miles traveled resulting from employees telecommuting one, two or three days per week. In addition, through the use of surveys and interviews with telecommuters and their supervisors, he documented changes in morale and productivity. His study will inform revisions to the City's telecommuting policy in response to the 2004 U.S. Mayor's Climate Protection Act.
Strategic Outreach and Sustainable Communities in Action
Todd Hunsdorfer created change with his project at the Seattle Green Festival. He cultivated relationships across communities as he worked with others to provide a platform for community empowerment and democratic participation. The festival was a powerful experience that helped build permanent connections and bridge multiple communities.
Creating a Community of Ambassadors for Art in Collaboration
With Artist Trust
Vickie Strand built on her relationship with Artist Trust to connect with leaders and stakeholders who are active in the arts communities around the state. She supported teams in their efforts to build social capital across the stretch between artists and their communities. Vickie worked to build the Trust's team, arranging and facilitating the meeting of this new committee.
Neighbor-to-Neighbor Dialogues About Sustainability
Amy Barker worked with a conservation coalition to bridge the gap between the group and local community members. Using dialogue techniques, she identified their common values and then used these principles to assist the community to make sustainable planning and land-use decisions.
Growing Community Through Neighborhood-based Design
Tara Brouillet and Eric Dripps served as steering committee members in a Fremont (Seattle) neighborhood initiative to create a local organic garden (P-Patch). Their work involved community development, garden design and fundraising.
Opening a Neighborhood Resource Center
Debbie Paton collaborated with a community group to open a neighborhood resource center in the Roosevelt neighborhood of Bellingham, WA. She assisted the group as it prepared to open the doors of the center and began to provide services to the local community.
Experiential Environmental Education at Nathan Hale High School
Wendy Bellows led an experiential environmental education program at the Nathan Hale High School in Seattle. The program included restoring a local creek and learning about the creek's ecosystem. It demonstrated students' ability to affect positive change in the environment and provided them with real-life experiences to complement their classroom learning.
Education and Corporate Sustainability
Molly Deas explored the role of education to motivate corporate workers to be more environmentally sustainable. She created a workshop on environmental sustainability for employees and studied their practices and behavior before and after taking the workshop. Her work provides an excellent model that could be used to teach sustainable practices in the corporate world.
Sustainability Education: A Multicultural Approach
Christina Dollhausen designed, implemented and evaluated a new "education for sustainability" program in a multicultural high school in Santa Fe, NM. Her work demonstrated practical ways to incorporate multiculturalism in the classroom and how to create a sustainability curriculum relevant for a diverse student audience.
Children Creating Change in School
Amy McNulty worked with Calvary Chapel Christian School in California to create an environmental club. The club's students designed and implemented a recycling program and led energy-conservation efforts on campus. The club's success was largely due to the leadership roles assumed by the students themselves.
Education for Sustainability: Lake Superior Pathfinders
Steve Sandstrom developed and assessed a unique program to provide high school students with opportunities to investigate the environmental issues that affect Lake Superior. The program taught students how to understand and take action on environmental issues in their own communities.
Organizational Sustainability and Community
Sarah Kennedy worked with a struggling, Portland-based nonprofit feminist bookstore, "In Other Words," to create a plan for it to become sustainable. While exploring ways to ensure the organization's viability, Kennedy found a remarkable correlation between the local community's commitment to the bookstore and its ongoing sustainability.
Paving the Way to Sustainability in the Army Corps of Engineers
Alicia Austin Johnson worked as a member of a team at the Army Corps of Engineers (Seattle District) to develop a program that incorporates sustainability into the district's mission, projects and operations. A key focus for her work was the Environmental Operating Principles/Sustainability Action Group.
What Do 280 Species of Birds Know That We Don't Know?
Alison Ball collaborated with a network of environmental education organizations in Cleveland, OH. She organized community members to develop and implement initiatives to restore a lakefront dredge disposal site as a nature preserve. This site already provides habitat for more than 280 species of birds and other wildlife species, as well as many plants.
Good Neighbors: Promoting Community-scale Sustainability
Bryan Cook worked with the Phinney Neighborhood Association in Seattle to explore ways to engage community members in programs and activities to promote sustainability. His work led to the development of new ideas about the interface between community members and neighborhood associations.
Reviving the Portland Green Map: Creating Sense of Place and Sustainability
Darcy Cronin initiated a project to revive the Portland Green Map, a local resource dormant since its publication in 2002. She reviewed the original Portland, OR, grassroots effort and researched project models from other cities in an effort to redevelop the project through collaborative partnerships. Cronin's work helped to develop a stronger sense of place, while it also promoted ecological and community sustainability.
Ecological Patterns in Community Gardens
Inspired by community gardens as a model for weaving together social justice and environmental sustainability, Kristen McIvor worked to strengthen the relationship between the South Park community in Seattle and Marra Farm, a publicly owned, community-run model urban farm. In particular, she explored how the concepts of permaculture can be used to strengthen communities.
Rainwater Harvesting in a Community College
Tammie Stark coordinated a collaborative effort to install a rainwater harvesting system at Lane Community College in Oregon. Using the system as a teaching model, she led interactive educational workshops focused on water issues. Her workshops became a stepping stone toward other programs and activities on sustainability, community building, systemic thinking and integrated water management.
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