George Mason University’s New Century College (NCC) faculty, staff, and students often approach sustainability from different disciplines—environmental studies, social justice, conservation biology, for example—yet work together to inspire other campus team members to improve Mason’s green footprint.
NCC is especially proud of its role in helping Mason advance to the “Finest Four” in the national Environmental March Madness tournament hosted by Enviance, Inc. NCC contributors to this grass roots effort included students, faculty, and staff from NCC’s Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement (CLCE), the Center for Field Studies (CFS), the Sustainability Living Learning Community (SLLC), and the Environmental and Sustainability Studies (ESS) BA program. Specific examples of NCC’s contributions include:
- Staff member German Perilla’s leadership on developing and instituting the Mason Bee project.
- The leadership efforts of NCC student Giulia Manno, president of Mason Green Patriots, in securing a PGF grant to install campus solar charging stations.
- ESS majors Charles Coats, resident advisor of the Sustainability LLC, and Roger LeBlanc, a Sustainability LLC resident and Peer Mentor, who mobilized the student outreach effort.
- Andrew Wingfield, Mason’s Sustainability Fellow and NCC professor of sustainability studies, for initiating and coordinating the Environmental March
Madness effort, both within NCC and campus-wide.
The March Madness national champion will be chosen on April 9th, but to those of us at NCC, Mason is already a “green champion.”
April 08, 2013
