Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 66.77
Liaison Paul Edlund
Submission Date May 31, 2023

STARS v2.2

Montana State University
AC-5: Immersive Experience

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Paul Edlund
Project Coordinator
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution offer at least one immersive, sustainability-focused educational study program that is one week or more in length?:
Yes

A brief description of the sustainability-focused immersive program(s) offered by the institution:
The Community-Engaged and Transformational Scholarship program (CATS): The Community-Engaged and Transformational Scholarship program (CATS) is an initiative of Montana State University's Western Transportation Institute that matches projects identified and prioritized by Montana communities with students and faculty in relevant disciplines at MSU to assist in making those projects reality. Throughout the Fall 2020 semester, students in two undergraduate courses joined the city of Bozeman in imagining how Soroptimist park, a park in downtown Bozeman, might be improved in the future. Students in the Advanced Landscape Design Studio in the Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology and the Stream Restoration Ecology course in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Science spent the semester designing potential layouts for the park and researching best practices for maintaining and improving the stream health of Bozeman Creek, which runs through the park.
Website URL: http://wrtwc.org/partnerships/cats/

Towne's Harvest Practicum: Emphasizes hands-on field experience with small-scale market gardening, distribution through community-supported agriculture, and market sales at local farmers' markets. Students will complete one independent project, service-learning at local farms, and complete weekly writing assignments. This practicum is designed to provide insight into environmental, economic, and social components to sustainable food systems. This practicum takes place over the summer.
Website URL: https://townesharvest.montana.edu

Smart Building Initiative (SBI) Internship Program: The Smart Building Initiative (SBI) is a student initiated, faculty and staff led program that seeks to build the support and financial infrastructure to enable the development and implementation of projects that achieve utility cost savings. The goals of the SBI program are to increase campus (state-owned buildings) operational efficiency, thus saving money and reducing MSU’s environmental impact simultaneously. In order to achieve this goal, the SBI committee oversees the implementation and monitoring of projects to determine how to most effectively use SBI funds. Additionally, MSU operates a summer SBI internship program targeted at MSU students who hope to gain hands-on experience in their field.

School of Architecture Community Design Center (CDC): The Community Design Center serves the people of Montana by reaching to non-profit organizations and government agencies to provide visioning, planning and conceptual design. The CDC fosters a collaborative interdisciplinary community/university partnership approach that serves the people of Montana in research and design of the built environment. This project takes place during an academic year.
Website URL: http://www.arch.montana.edu/cdc/

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the institution’s immersive education programs is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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