Saint Joseph's College - ME
EN-3: Student Life

EcoReps: The mission of the EcoReps is to serve as peer educators to raise awareness on sustainability issues ranging from waste reduction and diversion, energy efficiency and conservation, to health and well-being, water conservation, and more. EcoManagers are paid student positions who educate in the residence halls by encouraging and promoting sustainable behavior changes while leading entrepreneurial projects, events, and competitions. There are six EcoManagers positions and a rotating number of EcoReps who volunteer and learn with their peers. There is an open door for more EcoReps to join throughout the semester.

Saint Joseph's College operates a 5-acre working farm that offers students opportunities to engage in service, volunteerism, and collaborate with academic pursuits. The farm also offers to students, faculty, staff, and community members a comprehensive CSA program in the spring/summer/fall. In addition, all first-year students visit the farm to learn about operations, sustainability, and farm-related activities and opportunities. Pearson’s Town Farm is a small non-certified organic farm that is working toward a permacultural design. Staff and volunteers operate under the philosophy that food is a right, not a privilege, and that everyone is entitled to and should have access to fresh, healthy food. The College supports the belief that agriculturalists are responsible for producing food in a manner that does no harm to the environment, meaning that they sacrifice “picture perfect” food for the sake of properly ripened, fresh, nutritious, flavorful food that is grown in balance with the world around us. As an educational tool, the farm is an invaluable means for reconnecting people, both young and old, with simple, naked foods; reintroducing others to the simplicity and superior health of non-processed foods. Pearson’s Town is committed to reaching out into the community to encourage those who are able to recapture the practice of Victory Gardening, to empower the under-served to help subsidize for themselves, and to inspire small at-home agriculture projects to, perhaps, subsidize incomes. Our staff is working to create as many closed system programs on the farm as are practicable in order to demonstrate the feasibility and ease of growing a variety of foods with only as many “outside inputs” as are necessary. Using the permaculture model, everything from our soil to our llama are interconnected for the greatest good of the whole of the farm. The farm recognizes this model's potential as a teaching tool for promoting a strengthened and more independent local community.

The College offers a 16-week CSA program where shareholders can purchase in-season vegetable from our farmstand or Greater Gorham Farmer's Market. The CSA is primarily student-run, and engages students in both leadership and management capacities. New in 2017, Pearson's Town Farm is offering a seedling sale, which again engages students in both leadership and management capacities through all stages of the process.

The Green Revolving Fund (GRF) is an investment fund that finances energy efficiency, renewable energy, waste reduction, and other sustainability projects on campus, including waste reduction. The Fund provides capital for special projects conducted by Facilities that reduce environmental impact and can repay the fund with cost-savings within seven years. The mission of the Green Revolving Fund is to encourage environmentally sound technologies and practices on campus. The fund will further the broader academic mission of the College while helping it to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and embody the College’s values. The Green Revolving Fund will function as an independent fiscal entity managed by the Sustainability Task Force. The Fund will grow over time by collecting cost-savings from the projects it funds and reinvesting them in new projects, while offering opportunities for engagement and hands-on learning for the College community. Green Community Fund A percentage of savings from the Green Revolving Fund energy efficiency projects at the College are being allocated to the Green Community Fund. The Fund will: Focus on smaller projects that may have longer payback timeframes, or even no financial payback, but that will foster sustainability awareness among members of the College. Community and empower them to develop their own solutions. Consider projects proposed by College community members that promote sustainability in education, campus culture, and behavior. Consider project ideas from all areas of campus, including academic courses, independent student research, student organizations, and academic departments. Award money that does not necessarily require repayment.

Many sustainability related events have been hosted by Saint Joseph's College. These events vary from year to year. Seven years ago we began the academic year with our Fall Sustainability Festival and Eat Local Lunch. This event celebrated sustainability and showcased many local vendors who were involved in energy conservation, clean energy, local food and sustainably produced goods. The event was originally planned and implemented by the campus E-Team, but three years ago it changed to a Spring event (during Earth Week) and the student EcoReps became involved as well. During Earth Week, one or more lecturers are brought to campus. Some past speakers were Carl Safina, founder of the Blue Ocean Institute; Tom Wessels, forest ecologist and author of the Myth of Progress; Drew Barton, ecologist who specializes on the impacts of climate on the New England forest; Ray Sirois, who was trained by Al Gore's Climate Reality Project; Sr. Mary Pendergast, RSM, the director of ecology for the Sisters of Mercy Northeast Community, who presented on the impact of tar sands extraction and transportation, during the time when local communities were directly impacted by this issue (proposed pipeline reversal for tar sands transporting) because of the pipeline that borders Sebago Lake and our College campus. Each year we also show a variety of current eco films. In 2016 we showed Racing Extinction, Cowspiracy, Damnation, and Penobscot.

As part of the College's new civic action plan, the Community Culture (3C) was created. Built on the philosophy that collaboration between communities can create powerful visions and robust strategies for growth, 3C is a place-based interdisciplinary collaboration of campus and community members supporting civic engagement through creative programs and media, and promoting an environmentally sustainable and “socially just presence on Earth. Projects housed within the Collective include exhibits, performances, participatory events, and creative collaborations.

The Saint Joseph's College Outdoor Adventure Club is an active club supervised by a faculty member and student-led. Additionally, the College operates a full-functioning Campus Recreation department that engages students in outdoor adventure and leadership experiences throughout the year. The Director of the program is a certified Leave No Trace trainer.

SJC Ecoreps employ between 12-17 students each semester.