University of Houston - Downtown
EN-3: Student Life

UHD Garden and Compost Club
The UHD Garden and Compost Club is a recreational student organization which practices organic vegetable and flower gardening. The clubs mission is to understand the importance of all aspects of urban agriculture. The organization is focused on issues such as building healthy soil, learning to Identify beneficial insects, and encourage symbiotic relationships that produce healthier and more nutritious foods.

UHD Environmental Club
he Environmental Club aims to raise awareness within the University of Houston-Downtown and surrounding community with regard to environmental issues through fun and exciting manners ; especially the importance of recycling and sustainable actions. We attempt to educate our students and fellow citizens about appreciating the significance of the natural occurrences in the everyday environment and how to live an eco-friendlier lifestyle. Additionally, we provide our members with an abundance of volunteer activities that exposes them to the realities of environmental incidents. We highly promote a great diversity of members by encouraging students of varying backgrounds, majors, and ideologies to participate in our mission while building relations amongst other students, advisors and faculty. Together, we are working to elevate the consciousness of our community toward more earth-friendly practices and policies that can benefit our environment.

The UHD Garden Club is recreational student organization which practices organic vegetable and flower gardening. The clubs mission is to understand the importance of all aspects of urban agriculture. Our organization is focused on issues such as building healthy soil, learning to Identify beneficial insects, and encourage symbiotic relationships that produce healthier and more nutritious foods.

Our Kroger Green Initiatives requires that students create a project proposal. The project has to meet certain criteria to be approved. The project should have a focus on food, but can be about sustainability. They have requested that four funded projects be in the area of addressing hunger, food waste or urban food production. The remaining four can be in any aspect of sustainability. Part of the proposal is that students come up with a budget for their project. This initiative is offered every academic school year.

The Organic Horticulture Benefits Alliance periodically hosts talks at UHD that are aimed at students. UHD has also sent Eco-Reps to several student conferences where student projects were presented and discussed.

UHD host the The Gulf Coast Chapter of the Texas Master’s Naturalist training program that educates students on the complex ecology of our region, heightening their sense of how land use and pollution can endanger the balance of said ecology

Experiential Summer Program:
Experiential Learning through CUAS (EL CUAS) is a summer program where students from different disciplines and backgrounds work together in teams to plan, build, and test a system that builds on the university's sustainable initiatives. The program provides a valuable opportunity for students to engage in an experiential learning program which focuses on creating solutions to current issues in food production or sustainable urban systems. Students take the spring course Fundamentals of Sustainability and spend all of Summer I working on sustainability projects with science, engineering, and components of other disciplines. The program also includes field trips and a stipend of $2000. Students will also present findings at the UHD Graduate and Student Internship Fair, UHD Student Research Conference and potentially at one additional local/national conference (travel will be covered).

Green Initiatives Grant
A student or group of students (up to 3) can design a project that creates or builds on sustainable practices within UHD or the larger Houston community. Projects may focus on subjects such as educational campaigns, nutrition, small business consulting, green initiatives, new technologies or new UHD resources such as new UHD infrastructure, art or digital materials. Projects may be carried out at UHD or off-campus at appropriate locations.

Eco-Reps is a group of students working in collaboration with the Center for Urban Agriculture & Sustainability. These students promote sustainable behavior on campus as well as implement green initiatives. Eco-Reps reach out to their fellow students, faculty, and staff in order to collaborate on projects, green initiatives, and raise awareness about sustainability. Eco-Reps are exposed to sustainable ideas and initiatives on a weekly basis where they then spread that information to our campus community
SUSTAIN is an USDA opportunity to Support Undergraduate Sustainable Technology and Agricultural Needs. This is a valuable opportunity to engage in an experiential learning program which focuses on creating solutions to current issues in food production or sustainable urban systems. The program will include the integration of environmental science, societal concerns and technology. All majors are encouraged to apply as successful sustainability initiatives require input from business, education, psychology, engineering, biology and many other fields.

The Center for Urban Agriculture and Sustainability hires at least one student every semester for a work-study position that helps to support the office in its various efforts to advance sustainability on campus.