Pine Jog Fellowship: Cultivating Community Involvement and Environmental Leadership

1. Pine Jog Fellowship: Cultivating Community Involvement and Environmental Leadership

2. What Is Pine Jog? • Environmental Education Center • College of Education, Florida Atlantic University • Programs for school children, residential facility, public programs, academic courses, and contractual work • Serves approximately 40,000 individuals annually

3. What is the Pine Jog Fellowship? • Goal is to develop a cadre of young adults who understand the complex environmental issues effecting the South Florida Region. • Upon learning about these issues and meeting key stakeholders in the community, the Fellows design and implement a project to effect change upon their chosen issue. • In the final phase of the program, Fellows mentor school-aged youth and facilitate an environmental service-learning project. • Program driven by youth voice and leadership development of Fellows and school-aged youth.

4. Semester One (Summer B) • Mixture of College and High School Students • 30 Fellows, variety of schools represented • Summer Short Course • 3 credit hours • Explore environmental issues through 30+ guest lecturers and field experiences

5. Semester Two (Fall) • Fellows work individually or in pairs to design and implement an environmental service-learning project of their choice. • 3 credit hours, meet monthly • Project Bright Idea Campaign

7. Activity Guidelines • Everyone must work together to reach goal • Can only use popsicle sticks to accomplish goal • Cannot alter stick in any way • Your group has one minute to accomplish the first task ….

8. Semester Three (Spring) • Fellows mentor school-aged youth in Earth Force Program • Facilitate process for students to design and implement their own environmental service-learning project • Meet approximately 20-25 hours with youth • Work in a variety of after-school settings • 3 credit hours, meet monthly

9. Impact on Fellows

10. Quotes From Fellows “ Though I’m primarily focusing on architecture academically, I have begun to find ways in which architecture and environmental education intersect. At NYU, I’m a part of a group that advocates for sustainable and green practices in the University’s administration, focusing a lot on creating an environmental studies program, green building and how the two are integral to each other.” “At the beginning, my partner and I were unsure of how successful our project would be. However as time went on, we could not believe our results. Looking back now, I still cannot believe how much of an impact I made in my community. I am so proud of what we accomplished.”

11. Quotes From Fellows “I loved the program and all it will do is help the community. Its worth is in the students and teachers who live for bettering the environment and the community. It's in the thought processes that every student has when we make a decision, from the home I live in and how much energy I use, to making the decision to ride your bike to work some days, and coasting to a red light. This program has however many students a year but it touches every person in that students life for the rest of their life. It teaches all of them that it is our responsibility to make wise environmental choices.”

12. Impacts On School-Aged Youth

13. Impacts On School-Aged Youth

14. 2007-2008 Pine Jog Fellows • Completed Summer B Course in August 2007 • 1/2 through Fall 2007 course • Planning stages of their own service-learning project • 31 Fellows, more than 15 SL projects • Beginning to search out youth groups for Spring 2008

15. Thank You!