Sustainability Leadership Academy 2017

This August, 15 high school leaders came together for the second year of our Sustainability Leadership Academy residential, week-long program. This year, we were excited to have participants who traveled from as far as China to learn about careers in sustainability (we miss you, Steve)!

After a first evening of icebreakers and teambuilding games, we jumped right in on the first full day, starting the morning with a leadership studio with Chatham’s Career Development Office. The rest of the day was filled with tons of time in the fields and woodlands of the Eden Hall Campus – starting with an applied woodland ecology session with Professor Linda Johnson and ending with an epic group game of capture the flag.

Applied Ecology with Dr. Linda Johnson of the Falk School of Sustainability

Day 2 was full of green building tours! We started at the new Frick Environmental Center, where Maureen Olinzock, Sustainability Coordinator, and Taiji Nelson, Naturalist Educator, both with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, showed us around the Living Building’s features. We spent the afternoon at Phipps’ Center for Sustainable Landscapes and even met up with their high school interns in the SEED Classroom. We were pumped to end our day with our first night out in Pittsburgh at Kennywood theme park!

Kennywood Night!

Day 3 was food day! After a morning spent harvesting mushrooms, greens, zucchini and more with Tony on the Eden Hall Farm, we took the whole afternoon to learn how to cook from Chef Chris, who manages all the great food that comes out of the campus dining hall. We fileted and prepared our own fish with vegetables. It was a good challenge out of comfort zones for some, but well worth the taste! The day wound down with a game night – including corn hole, Frisbee, and board games like Exploding Kittens and Taboo too.

Cooking class with Chef Chris from Parkhurst Catering at the dining hall.

Day 4 was focused on social justice and planning. In the morning, we toured downtown Pittsburgh’s walk/bike infrastructure and public transit projects with Sean Luther and Phoebe Downey from Envision Downtown. The afternoon was spent in Homewood, where we toured the Sankofa Village Community Garden with Ayanna Jones and the Oasis Farm & Fishery with Casey Clauser. For most of us, seeing sustainability in action to drive social change on the neighborhood scale was the highlight of our week. That night, after some free time to play soccer and use the rock climbing wall on the Shadyside Campus, we had our second night out in Pittsburgh – an escape room! It was great teambuilding, even though neither team managed to escape in time.

With the garden interns at the Sankofa Village Community Garden in Homewood.

Our last full day started with a green building tour around downtown Pittsburgh by kayak with Isaac Smith and Mary Schrag from the Green Building Alliance. Everyone had been looking forward to this all week and we were so glad the weather held out! In the afternoon, we had a follow-up leadership studio and then wrapped up the program with outdoor pool time, a campfire and some group closing and bonding time.

Green building kayak tour of Downtown Pittsburgh with GBA.

All week, each young leader worked on their own project idea to implement in their home communities, starting as soon as they left this program. Projects range from getting local businesses to eliminate use of plastic bags to inventing new technologies and improving the effectiveness of their high school’s environmental club. We look forward to catching up with the whole group over the next 6 months or so as we conference call to check-in on project successes and stories.

Thanks to all the young leaders and to the community partners involved for a great week! We couldn’t put it better than some of the leaders themselves:

  • “I learned a lot more about sustainability than I knew before and also realized the connection between sustainability and social justice. I realized a possible interest in urban planning as well.”
  • “I enjoyed learning more about sustainability in Pittsburgh because even though I’ve lived here my whole life I had no idea how many green buildings are here.”
  • “This week I learned that working with the environment is what I want to do with my life for sure.”
  • “Thanks for a great and empowering week!”

Sustainability Leadership Academy 2016

This summer saw the inaugural year of the Sustainability Leadership Academy (SLA) out of Chatham’s Eden Hall Campus. This residential camp program for high school students exposed rising change-agents to topics and skills needed to lead in a sustainable field of work or study. From August 4-7, fourteen participants from four different states met young professionals in the field and Chatham faculty through hands-on activities and tours, both around the city of Pittsburgh and at Eden Hall.

Friday’s city day was full of adventure, starting with a public transit-oriented tour of Downtown Pittsburgh with Sean Luther and Phoebe Downey of Envision Downtown. After a picnic lunch near Point State Park, the group experienced Pittsburgh by kayak, facilitated by Isaac Smith of Green Building Alliance.

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The afternoon ended with a tour of Millvale, emphasizing needs and strategies for sustainable communities on the neighborhood and municipality scale with Zaheen Hussein, Millvale’s Sustainability Coordinator. Following dinner on Chatham’s main campus in Shadyside, the SLA enjoyed a night out on the town at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

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After a fun-filled and very active Friday, Saturday’s day on the farm at the Eden Hall Campus started with a session on soil’s role in sustainable agriculture with Assistant Professor of Agroecology, John Taylor. Associate Professor of Biology, Sherie Edenborn, brought microbiology to our taste buds with a chocolate and honey sampling and visit to the campus bee hives. After lunch and some breaks to catch updates in Olympics events on the large screen in the EBC, Assistant Farm Manager, Tony Miga, led participants in sampling water quality from a rainwater capture system he installed on campus. The last session of the day was on renewable energy with Chatham’s new Assistant Professor of Energy Systems, Iris Grossmann. The day ended with a movie night in the pool and group campfire. Everyone wasn’t ready to leave the next morning!

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The program was bookended with Leadership Studios, facilitated by Chatham’s Assistant Director for Career Development’s Kate Sheridan. During these sessions, participants examined personal values and mission statements while exploring what it means to be an “everyday leader.”

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We had a wonderful time meeting these young leaders and can’t wait for next year! Dates for next year’s SLA, which will be a week-long, will be announced soon. To learn more about the program and to register starting in January 2017, visit the SLA website.

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