High School students view sustainability through a new LENS
Photo by De'Noia Woods, Photography Intern
Twenty-six high school students learned about sustainability through the lens of food and water systems this summer during the inaugural LENS (Learn. Experience. Navigate. Solve.) Program. Postdoctoral Fellow in Religion and the Environmental Program, Lucas Johnston and English professor Anne Boyle teamed up to lead the program, which was designed to provide high school students with the opportunity to engage in the broader community through writing and intensive, hands-on study of a pressing political issue.
Participants enjoyed such activities as a visit to River Ridge Land & Cattle Co. to see a grass-fed, antibiotic free cattle ranch and a white water rafting trip. According to Johnston, these trips provided students (some of whom had never seen a farmer before) with “a profound appreciation for natural spaces and what they do for us.” The field trips provided context for classes in Environmental Studies and English back on the Reynolda Campus.
During the program, the students worked in teams to tackle a number of ambitious co-curricular projects, including the prominent mural on the shed next to the campus garden, a documentary of fellow students’ projects, and a traditional research project on e-waste about which the students submitted an editorial for publication in the Old Gold & Black.
Academic year volunteers in the campus garden are able to reap the rewards from another LENS project. The new three-compartment aerobic composter, planned and constructed by six students, addresses the need for a compost system in the ever-expanding garden. Food waste from the Campus Kitchen Fresh Market runs is converted into usable soil amendment through a month-long process of turning and transfer between the bins. These bins have also allowed volunteers to incorporate waste from the Gaia food macerator/dehydrator pilot to make a nutrient rich fertilizer.
The lessons learned during the summer have continued to enrich the participant’s lives even after their return home, Johnston said. One student from Stokes County, NC has already started a sustainability club at his high school. “A rising high school senior went home and did this at his school; that is the most inspiring thing. They [the students] took the motivation for change back home with them,” he said.
The program is designed to shift themes to focus on a different pressing issue annually. The overwhelmingly positive response from participants to the sustainability theme this year could influence next year’s theme, though the focus has not officially been determined.
By Caitlin Brooks, Communications and Outreach Intern