Student Action Plans

The purpose of any CELL experience is to ignite a life-long commitment to living sustainably and to giving and receiving support for this commitment through community. During the course of a semester program, students learn about the concepts of sustainability while living in eco-villages and learning from internationally recognized partners who are modeling how a “small group of committed people” can make a big difference in achieving local and global sustainability. At the end of a CELL semester abroad program, students develop action plans that empower them to return home and employ what they have learned in their own lives and through implementing sustainability initiatives in their own communties. This individual and collective action is at the heart of what CELL is all about!  Below are several examples of student action plans. 

Examples of Sustainability through Community Action Plans      

Allison

My Action Plan consists of three parts. First I am going to do one of the Northwest Earth Institute readings (an inspiring course we did as part of the CELL program) with my family. I think it would be an interesting and beneficial experience to share this reading with them. Second, I am going to help my friend, Taryn, get an organic garden started on my campus. I have a lot of information under my belt about community gardens now and I am sure I can utilize it wisely. When I get back I am going to help Taryn to come up with the money to build this garden and then in the spring we will build the fence and the soils. Third, I am going to do an independent research project on ecopsychology. I would like it to research either one of two things: the effects of nature on those with disabilities, or the effects an organic garden can have on a college campus (the students’ moods, involvement and connection they feel to the natural world). I plan on sitting down with some professors and Wendy, the social worker from my mom’s school, when I get home to establish a concrete research question.                                                             

- Allison Ward – CELL Iceland 2008

Josh

My plan when I return back home is to encourage my family to eat in a more sustainable manner (local, organic, fair-trade, etc.).  This will help us to reduce our carbon footprint and reduce environmental degradation in our community and abroad.  Potential positive benefits include getting to know our own community better (including farmers in the area, what is produced at different times of the year, and meeting neighbors who enjoy “slow food”), improving our health (by eating foods which contain less poisons and more vitamins), and supporting our local economy. The first step in implementing this plan will be to do some research about food sources in my area. After this I want to share my findings with my family and also what I’ve learned at CELL, and engage them with the NWEI reader, “Menu for the Future.”  My objective is to work with my family in developing a plan that fits their needs to eat more sustainably and with a greater connection to their food.

- Josh Howard – CELL Iceland 2008

Chance with CELL Friends

For my action plan, I will be attending a Town Meeting to invigorate environmental awareness in the administration of my hometown of Acushnet, Massachusetts. I will ask and propose that the town install several “Share the Road” signs along the town’s scenic roads around the center of town. This awareness will hopefully get more people riding and also making the operators of vehicles more aware of the presence of cyclists and pedestrians on our public roads. Our environment will benefit from the reduction of vehicles on the road and the feeling of community will be revitalized and strengthened with more people out on their bicycles. I will also be taking action closer to home by taking my young cousin out doors and showing him his connectedness with the natural world around him. I fear he has not been exposed to the living world around him, so at this impressionable age I will expose him to the farm life and the beauties of the forest. Finally, I am in the process of setting up an environmental awareness lecture/ discussion with the eighth grade class of my local town. This was a pivotal time in my life and it is important that these young individuals make the correct decisions which will now inevitably affect the future.

- Chancery Perks – CELL Iceland 2008

Dave

One of my projects concerns oil spills, which have become more common and problematic as foreign oil demand rises. Thankfully, the most efficient material known to man for picking up oil is a waste product we can easily utilize: human hair. Matter of Trust is an organization accepting donations of hair to make oil-sponges for cleaning up oil spills. [I plan on] convincing my home salon, Locks Landing, to join on board with Matter of Trust and send their waste hair to them instead of the landfill. Another project involves working with my school, Unity College. Although Unity is fast becoming a great model for sustainability, people are building a lot of environmentally conscious infrastructure, but not much environmental community. I’m going to spend Spring semester working with the new Sustainability Coordinator to build a green community. The first plan of action is to put together a group of people interested in a discussion group revolving around the Northwest Earth Institute readings. From there, we’ll use the group as an idea factory for insight into where to go from there.

- Dave Stillson – CELL Iceland 2007

 When I return to Mills, I have many orders of business.  I will:

Kelly

• Research our power company and inquire about green power possibilities.
• Research our power company and inquire about green power possibilities.
• Research own lawn practices (watering to pesticide use) and suggest more sustainable practices. 
• Learn about what type of paper the campus uses, research recycled paper options and suggest using recycled paper for campus printer and letter use.
• Leave notes around my dorm encouraging a reduction in energy use by suggesting switching off lights when not in use, taking quicker and colder showers, etc.  I will include on these notes the effects of such action.
• Encourage empowerment and inspiration via quotes and questions on the windows of the New Science Building and also leave space for discussion.
• Encourage more sustainable living merely by demonstration.

Rationale: Mills College is a community that is currently transitioning to more environmentally sound practices overall.  I would like to help aid in this transition and share the empowerment, hope and inspiration I experienced this semester.

- Kelly Stewart – CELL Iceland 2007

Ian with CELL Friends in Reykjavik

My action plan is to raise awareness of the feasibility of solar power in the Rhode Island Marine community. The most practical use of solar power for Rhode Island Boaters would be supplying power for their onboard instruments. The Majority of boaters utilize their inboard engines or run auxiliary gas powered generators for onboard electronics.  However, solar panels have the capability of replacing this excess use of fossil fuels on the water. My key selling point is that solar panels are sure to pay for themselves in a short amount of time, considering rising oil prices. My renewed sense of environmental stewardship has made me greatly concerned of the impact of boating on the marine ecosystems.  I feel many people would greatly be interested in the alternative of solar, but they just are not informed.  I hope to connect distributors of marine solar panels with the boaters of my community.

- Ian Larson – CELL Iceland 2007