Campuses for Environmental Stewardship

    The 2018 Campuses for Environmental Stewardship (CES) program trained college faculty from 14 baccalaureate degree granting colleges and universities in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire to develop and deliver courses which partner with community organizations to address pressing issues such as environmental stewardship and STEM education.

    Through this three-year initiative, over 60 faculty members worked in multi-disciplinary teams from 14 campuses across 5 New England states to embed community-engaged environmental education into a course of any discipline. Selected campuses delivered 3-4 related service-learning courses. Each course culminated with a student-led community initiative and/or presentation.

    Teams received training in service-learning pedagogy and applied this interdisciplinary model to create community partnerships and address critical environmental stewardship challenges across 4 New England states.

    The Campuses for Environmental Stewardship 2021 Summit will take place on May 19th to bring together faculty and campus administrators to discuss how campuses can play a leadership role in prioritizing and solving critical issues like climate change and food insecurity, and how to better support faculty at the forefront. Registration Link: https://events.compact.org/ces-summit

    This grant was received from the Davis Educational Foundation, established by Stanton and Elisabeth Davis after Mr. Davis’ retirement as chairman of Shaw’s Supermarkets, Inc.

    Program Highlights

      • 75 faculty from across different disciplines trained in environmental service-learning and embedded an infused project into their course
      • 96 community organizations worked with faculty and students on a community project.
      • 1,922 students participated in an environmental service-learning project.
      • A replicable model for interdisciplinary service-learning emerged and is being disseminated via our Best Practices Manual and specialized training and events.

    Impact on Faculty & Students

    Findings from the CES program illustrate that interdisciplinary service-learning improves student motivation to tackle complex problems, such as environmental challenges, as well as increases their confidence to engage in problem-solving activities. Faculty’s confidence in designing these courses increased as did their ability to enhance student capacity to solve real-world problems; however, their motivation to execute community projects decreased, leading program administrators to identify a need for additional support and to suggest recommendations for future programming.

    Participating faculty teams:
    • Attended a two-day Faculty Institute on service-learning and environmental education.
    • Received sub-awards.
    • Received ongoing consultation as they developed or updated syllabi.
    • Taught a new or existing course embedded with environmental community projects and student-led initiatives/presentations.
    • Attended State Field Seminars and the Best Practices Showcase.
    Through course participation and student-led initiatives:
    • Developed new, 21st century skills.
    • Gained greater appreciation and motivation.
    • Improved leadership and public engagement skills.
    • Expanded their new works and diversified their skill sets.
    Some significant findings from the faculty open-ended questions include:
    • 74% of respondents stated that the greatest benefit of the two-day CES faculty training institute was the built in team time which prompted faculty teams to inspire one another and collaborate as well as network with faculty from other institutions.
    • 98% indicated that the student-led presentation or initiative met both course and community goals in at least one way.
    • 89% of the faculty respondents indicated that as a result of the CES project, their students gained at least one skill.
    • 68% of the faculty respondents reported that there are presently momentum and actions being taken on their campus to further these types of projects and environmental initiatives.
    Some significant findings from the student open-ended questions include:
    • 96% of the student respondents were able to report at least one connection between the course material and the CES project. Sixty-three percent of them reported that this connection was the acquisition of knowledge over the course of the semester. The repeating ideas in this theme, an increase in knowledge, include students gaining an awareness of themselves, the environment, other people’s perspectives and the course material.
    • 97% of the student respondents reported that they had learned at least one skill (many reported multiple skills) from the CES project, specifically due to the student-led initiative or presentation. Many students reported they learned skills that could be categorized as 21st century skills such as team work and collaboration, interpersonal communication, public engagement/speaking, and research and interview skills. They overwhelming stated they learned how to embrace leadership roles.
    • 94% of the students surveyed report that they can identify a future action that they will take. These students attained a wide variety of methods and practices for becoming agents of change and stewards of the environment. With their new-found or re-invigorated environmental awareness, more than half of the students (52%) hope to either get involved in the community by volunteering, teaching, advocating or choosing a career in the environmental science field

    Required Forms and Documentation

    Davis Foundation CES Program Overview

    http://mainecompact.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Davis_CES_Overview-A.pdf

    Davis Foundation Request for Proposal

    http://mainecompact.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2018-Davis-RFP-Final-2.pdf

    Davis Foundation Proposal Cover Sheet

    http://mainecompact.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Davis_CES_Cover-Sheet.pdf

    CES Campus Budget Form

    http://mainecompact.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/CES-Budget-Form.pdf

    CES Faculty Final Report

    http://mainecompact.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/CES-Faculty-Final-Report.pdf

    CES Campus Final Report

    http://mainecompact.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/CES-Final-Campus-Report3-21.pdf

    Faculty Training Institute. Action Plan Goal ONE

    http://mainecompact.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/CES.-Faculty-Training-Institute.-Action-Plan-Goal-ONE.pdf

    Faculty Training Institute. Action Plan Goal TWO

    http://mainecompact.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/CES.-Faculty-Training-Institute.-Action-Plan-Goal-TWO.pdf

    Faculty Training Institute. Action Plan Goal THREE

    http://mainecompact.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/CES.-Faculty-Training-Institue.-Action-Plan-Goal-THREE.pdf

    CES Information PowerPoint

    http://mainecompact.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/CES-Information-Session-PPT-2018-1.pptx

    The CES Best Practices Manual shares program outcomes and describes transferable tools that can be replicated to incorporate interdisciplinary service-learning programming at higher education institutions.

    Program Model

    CES program administrators have identified five key elements that contributed to the success of the CES model and two additional amendments that emerged from lessons learned in the program implementation and evaluation periods. We believe that if adopted collectively, these five elements and two amendments further strengthen the CES model and help set the stage for widespread replication throughout the higher education landscape. The five elements illuminated are as follows:

    • Faculty Training and Designated Team Time;
    • Establishment and Support of Interdisciplinary Faculty Teams;
    • Incorporation of Student-led Initiatives/Presentations;
    • Designation of Student-learning Outcomes that include 21st Century Skill Development and emphasize Transferable Skills; and
    • Establishment of Reciprocal Community Partnerships that address Local Issues.

    The two added amendments are:

      1. Provision of a Typology to Faculty for Course Design and Faculty Collaboration; and
      2. Provision of Faculty Incentives.
    Element 1: Faculty Training and Designated Team Time

    All faculty who participated in the CES program attended an in-person training Institute on service-learning and environmental education. The Institute provided instruction on: the basics of service-learning pedagogy; establishing community partnerships; managing service-learning projects; education on environmental challenges and sustainability efforts; student-learning outcomes and 21st century skill development; assessment tools; and reflection. During the Institute, faculty were given time to work with their own teams and develop an action plan for their CES courses/projects (approximately 4-5 hours). These action plans created systems to maintain campus/community partnerships, developed processes to train and support faculty to integrate environmental principles, and established tracking/evaluation methods. Faculty were also given the opportunity to share ideas with faculty members from other campuses to get initial feedback on their proposed project ideas.

    Element 2: Establishment and Support of Interdisciplinary Faculty Teams

    CES set out to provide a strong example of successful interdisciplinary collaboration. From the beginning, various stakeholders such as campus deans, community engagement officers or Campus Compact staff recruited faculty from different disciplines to comprise each team and collaborate on service-learning project(s). The recruitment ranged from targeting individual faculty members who had expressed interest in community-engaged projects to alerting the whole campus, including adjunct faculty, of this initiative. The campus sub-grant served as an incentive for faculty to work together to implement the community project and the starting point for collaboration.

    To support faculty with their CES participation, each team had access to ongoing technical assistance support from Maine Campus Compact and the Campus Compact offices in each state. Each team also had a designated project manager who helped to coordinate efforts and ensure that grant benchmarks were being met. Some teams had a community engagement staff member serve as manager while others had one of the faculty on the team take on this responsibility. We found that a reliable project manager is central to team success. In future iterations, campuses could elect to offer added support and incentives to the faculty or staff member assuming this role. It was also observed that having institutional support such as a civic engagement office or dedicated staff on campus was helpful for faculty who were new to the service-learning pedagogy by providing connections to potential community partners and brainstorming initial project ideas.

    For added support, each campus team also had access to a curriculum specialist who provided ongoing assistance (10 hours per campus) for faculty course development, resource needs, and project implementation. Although not all campuses utilized the curriculum specialist due to time constraints and scheduling conflicts, the teams that met with the curriculum specialist in-person explained that it was helpful to have designated time to work with their team and have an outside person facilitate and coordinate this interdisciplinary collaboration. It also seemed that many faculty used the curriculum specialist as a “resource hotline” by sending email requests for resources or scheduling a phone call to walk through an issue. Cumulatively, the framework, training and resources provided through CES addressed many of the common barriers to interdisciplinary collaboration.

    Element 3: Incorporation of Student-led Initiative/Presentations

    In a prior iteration of this model funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, administrators noted that the most successful community projects often included a student-led initiative, such as a presentation to a town council on contamination of local lakes, an interactive forum on environmental issues with middle school students, or leadership of an on-campus event featuring film screenings, activities, and roundtable discussions. Given this promising feedback, CES administrators decided to make the student-led initiative/presentation a required component of this program.

    A tangible example of a successful CES student-led initiative is illustrated in a Sustainable Tourism Planning course from the University of Maine, where students developed a sustainable tourism plan for western Maine and presented it to their community partner, the Maine Woods Consortium. Students participated and led activities which included conducting attraction and service inventories; product development prioritization; market segmentation analysis; Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis; and stakeholder analysis. The information and activities conducted throughout the semester led to the development of a plan with suggestions for marketing, visitor management, and organizational management strategies.

    As reflected in this example and others, the student-led course component allowed CES faculty to provide students with opportunities to harness their learning and leadership development through greater accountability for the community projects. Correspondingly, both faculty and students in CES courses provided overwhelmingly positive feedback about the student-led initiative/presentation. Among the faculty who responded to an open-ended survey question, 98% indicated that the student-led presentation or initiative met both course and community goals. Additionally, half of the faculty observed that the student-led initiative allowed the students to participate in real-world application of the course subject matter. For example, one faculty member’s course goals were for students to learn general principles of tree identification and to partner with a local non-profit organization to conduct a citywide survey of recently planted trees. The faculty member reported, “The students took ownership and pride in the surveys and guides, and (I think) surprised themselves by how much they knew about local trees when they were done. I have received feedback from the partner organization that our assistance was extremely helpful.”

    On the student side, feedback was similarly positive. At the CES program’s outset, the hope was that the student-led initiative would provide students with more deeply rooted experiences that would strengthen their learning and 21st century skill development. Accordingly, the CES survey results revealed that these added program components did increase student self-efficacy, per self-reported findings. When asked about connections between the course materials and the CES program, specifically the student-led initiative or community presentation, 96% of student respondents reported at least one connection. Sixty-three percent reported that this connection was the acquisition of knowledge over the course of the semester. For example, one student remarked, “The two were 100% connected. Everything we learned in class materialized with [the field project], and the end result was not only knowledge, but a motivation to pursue discussed solutions.” Many students who reported an increase in knowledge also reported that they gained an awareness of themselves, the environment, other people’s perspectives and the course material. One student wrote: “I believe that, by planning and implementing our student-led projects, we were better able to understand the material being covered in class. It made us think about the stakeholders…[and] face issues from different perspectives.”

    Element 4: Designation of Student-learning Outcomes that include 21st Century Skill Development and emphasize Transferable Skills

    Given the growing emphasis on the importance of 21st century skill development for addressing capacious problems and for future job prospects, the CES program placed a heavy emphasis on the incorporation of the following skills in the design of courses and student-led initiatives:

    • teamwork and collaboration
    • leadership
    • communication and outreach
    • critical thinking
    • problem-solving
    • curiosity, imagination
    • public speaking
    • innovation, entrepreneurship
    • ability to be responsive, flexible, and adaptive throughout a project

    Aware that faculty face challenges when incorporating student learning outcomes to encompass the acquisition of the 21st century and transferable skills, and have also questioned how to assess this learning, CES administrators asked faculty two important questions at the Institute: 1.) What would you like your students to be able to do after they have finished your course? and; 2.) What type of service project would help students develop 21st century skills/abilities?

    Element 5: Establishment of Reciprocal Community Partnerships that address Local Issues

    Findings from the CES program suggest that cultivating partnerships between communities and higher education institutions is a promising strategy to improve student motivation for tackling complex community problems, such as environmental challenges, and to increase student confidence to engage in problem-solving activities. Since the inception of service-learning practices on campuses, an ongoing challenge has been how to create authentic, reciprocal community partnerships. A few CES faculty questioned this as well, pondering whether their project was making an impact. Students, however, overwhelmingly reported in their open-ended survey responses that working with a community partner had a strong influence on their learning and skills development.

    In the CES program, we observed two different approaches to establishing community partnerships dependent on the needs of the campus and community: 1) internal partnerships within the campus or a department on campus, and 2) external partnerships with an organization off campus. Of the 75 CES projects, 20 partnered with an organization or department on their campus (some in collaboration with an external partner as well).

    Amendment 1: Provision of a Typology for Course Design and Faculty Collaboration

    Colleagues in Vermont (Coleman and Williams Howe, in prep) developed commonalities in course design and collaboration across the 18 faculty teams, resulting in a new typology for interdisciplinary service-learning that is emerging out of the data on course design analyzed for this project. Three different ways that faculty incorporated service-learning into their classes were observed. First, some faculty focused their entire class project around the service-learning project and selected content that directly supported the project. Second, some faculty developed service-learning projects that served as a central component of the course. Third, some faculty developed small service-learning projects that did not constitute major components of the course.

    Trends in the way that faculty collaborated with the colleagues in their interdisciplinary teams were also observed, as illustrated in Table 1 below. This emerging typology may help to inform and support new faculty as they incorporate service-learning into their courses. First, some faculty integrated service-learning and environmental stewardship into their discipline through individual courses (A: Single Class Infusions) but did not collaborate with other courses beyond supporting one another with curriculum development/campus training. Other faculty (B: Cross-Course Learning) collaborated by creating shared assignments (e.g. readings and reflection activities) and shared events (e.g. final presentations and guest speakers) for the students to experience all together, thereby creating a learning community for students across multiple courses. Finally, some faculty (C: Multi-Class Collaborative Projects) collaborated by creating joint service-learning projects that students across all courses worked on together.

    CES Service-Learning Typology

    Service-Learning Model

      • A. Single Class Infusion: Community project integrated to varying degrees into one, stand-alone course: from one assignment/small project to entire course focus.
      • B. Cross-Course Learning: Two or more courses share events, presentations, discussions, readings, or assignments related to a community project.
      • C. Multi-Class Collaborative Projects: Two or more courses, representing multiple disciplinary perspectives, share a community project.
    Amendment 2: Provision of Faculty Incentives

    CES survey results showed that faculty confidence in the design of their CES courses and in their ability to enhance student capacity to solve real-world problems increased significantly over time. Confidence in their ability to execute environmental community projects also increased, although not significantly. This slight increase in confidence was paired with a significant decrease in their motivation to execute community projects. Key reasons for the decrease in motivation cited in the qualitative data, including focus groups and follow-up conversations, included: lack of institutional support, time constraints, not being recognized or rewarded for this work, and lack of sufficient faculty stipends or course release time.

    To address this decrease in motivation, CES administrators added the second key amendment to the CES model: provision of faculty incentives. Along with the training and support provided throughout the CES program, enhanced provision of faculty incentives is a key part of increasing motivation for integrating service-learning into courses and ensuring the success of this model. Although CES provided some incentives in the form of training, technical assistance support, and faculty sub-grants, CES administrators believe that additional incentives must come from higher education institutions to encourage faculty commitment. As revealed in the survey, 68% of the faculty respondents reported that momentum and actions are being taken on their campuses to further these types of projects and environmental initiatives. Conversely, while many faculty were optimistic about the increased awareness of environmental and community-based initiatives, 27% gave the overall impression that they were not convinced that significant change could occur in the existing landscape of their institution. One person wrote, “I think that our institution structure is set up in a way that obscures pathways to change and makes it quite difficult.” Another wrote, “Great potential, but it will need to be supported, incentivize, and appropriately evaluated as part of our tenure review.”

    2018-2019 Participant List

    Connecticut

    Central Connecticut State University

    • Charles E. Button (CES Project Manager)
    • Jeffery Kreeger
    • Steve Watton
    • Leah Glaser
    • Kurt Love

    Southern Connecticut State University

    • Sara Baker
    • Chelsea Harry
    • Suzanne Huminski (CES Project Manager)
    • Winnie Yu

    University of Connecticut

    • Andrew Ballantine
    • Anne Gebelein (CES Project Manager)
    • Kristina Wagstrom
    • Julia Cartabiano
    • Phoebe Godfrey
    • Julia Yakovich (CES Project Manager)

    Maine

    Husson University

    • Nico Jenkins
    • Thomas Stone (CES Project Manager)
    • Clinton Spaulding

    Saint Joseph’s College

    • Lenore DiFiore
    • Kimberly Post (CES Project Manager)
    • Patricia Waters
    • John Hufstader
    • Greg Teegarden

    University of Maine – Machias

    • Karen Beeftink
    • Mark Douglas
    • William Otto
    • Gregory Benton
    • Eric Jones
    • Lori Schnieders

    University of Maine at Presque Isle

    • Aaron Marsten, MS, ATC
    • Christopher Rolon, PT
    • Stacy Thibodeau, RN

    University of Southern Maine

    • Richard Bilodeau
    • Sara Ghezzi
    • Allyson Ryder
    • Samantha Frisk (CES Project Manager)
    • Jaime Picardy

    Massachusetts

    Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

    • Lynette Bond (CES Project Manager)
    • Anna Jaysane – Darr
    • Elena Traister
    • Anne Goodwin
    • Nicole Porther

    Merrimack College

    • Cynthia Carlson
    • Anne Gtling
    • Elain Ward
    • Ellen Fitzpatrick (CES Project Manager)
    • Sharon Taitelbaum

    Suffolk University

    • Melissa Muchmore (Project Manager)
    • Patricia Hogan
    • Scott Lussier
    • Hayley Schiebel

    Worcester State University

    • Allison Dunn
    • Matthew Johnsen
    • Jamie Remillard
    • Peter Friedland (CES Project Manager)
    • Francisco Vivoni
    • Mark Wagner

    New Hampshire

    University of New Hampshire at Manchester

    • Thomas Birch
    • Jennifer Logsdon
    • Sarah Prescott
    • Annie Donahue
    • Stephen Pimpare (CES Project Manager)
    • Sonic Woytonic

    2015-2016 Participants

    Castleton University

    • Chris Boettcher
    • Matthew Moriarty
    • Judith Robinson
    • Scott Roper
    • Ingrid Johnston-Robledo

    Champlain College

    • Cheryl Casey
    • Robin Collins
    • Valerie Esposito
    • Christina Erickson

    Colby-Sawyer College

    • Harvey Pine
    • William Spear
    • Catherine Turcotte
    • Pam Spear

    College of the Holy Cross

    • Kelly Wolfe-Bellin
    • Andrea Borghini
    • Stephanie Crist
    • Daina Harvey
    • Michelle Sterk Berrett

    Gordon College

    • Dorothy Borse
    • Kristen Cooper
    • Otonye Braide- Mancoeur
    • Jennifer Noseworthy

    Husson University

    • Adam Crowley
    • David Haus
    • Nico Jenkins
    • Tom Stone

    Landmark College

    • Debbie Gassaway-Hayward
    • Lena Jahn
    • Ned Olmsted
    • Andrew Stein
    • Brian Young

    Norwich University

    • Tara Kukarni
    • Matthew Lutz
    • Tom Roberge
    • Dave Westerman

    Springfield College

    • Thomas Carty
    • Justin Compton
    • Susan Joel
    • Eileen McGowan
    • Charlene Evers

    Stonehill College

    • Bridget Meigs
    • Candice Smith Corby
    • Megan Mitchell
    • Robert Rodgers
    • Maura Tyrell

    University of Maine- Augusta/ University College

    • Amy Peterson Cyr
    • Constance Holden
    • Lorien Lake-Corral
    • Michelle Lisi
    • Pamela Proulx-Curry

    University of Maine (Environmental)

    • Joline Blais
    • Sharon Klein
    • Bridie McGreavy
    • Sandra De Urioste-Stone
    • Daniel Dixon
    • Claire Sullivan

    University of Maine (STEM)

    • Farahad Dastoor
    • Michelle Goody
    • Amanda Olsen
    • Michelle Smith
    • Timothy Waring
    • Erin Vinson

    University of Massachusetts- Boston

    • Patrick Barron
    • Jose E Martinez-Reyes
    • Deborah Metzel
    • Robert Stevenson
    • Camille Martinez

    University of New England

    • Theo Dunfey
    • Sarah Gorham
    • Thomas Klak
    • Glenn Stevenson

    Unity College

    • Jennifer Cartier
    • James Spartz
    • Crista Straub
    • Michael Womersley
    • Reeta Largen

    University of Southern Maine (STEM)

    • Luci Benedict
    • Rachel Larsen
    • Ivan Most
    • Karen Wilson
    • Samantha Frisk

    University of Vermont

    • Tom Macias
    • Rachel Montesano
    • David Raphael
    • Christine Vatovec
    • Wendy Verrei-Berenback
    • Laura Webb
    • Susan Munkres