By Angel Feliciano, News Staff

Students in Environmental Politics gained real out-of-the-classroom experience this semester as they performed eco-friendly acts of their own picking.

Projects included modifying the recycling system in students’ apartment buildings, starting an Earth Day program at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum and working to build a lesson plan for preschoolers and kindergarteners about recycling.

“Whatever it is they felt connected to, they can make the project anything they want,” said Professor of Environmental Politics Corey Dehner. “What I was looking for was some kind of systemic change, something that would last even after the project is over. It is not my first time to have assigned this and I have to say I’m blown away by my students each time.”

Dehner said her students created and developed their community engagement projects (CEP) individually. Anything that is related to environmental education, conservation, public policy or advocacy was open to students, who were encouraged by Dehner to find something that would interest them to fuel their motivation and keep them engaged in the semester-long project. While some students had contact with NU officials for their projects, many did not, so the university was not directly involved with most projects, Dehner said.

“I want them to do something that they’re passionate about because they’ll be much more successful that way,” said Dehner, who was recently appointed co-director of the Worcester Community Project Center at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which works with community partners on the issues of social, environmental and economic significance to the city of Worcester. This was Dehner’s last semester at Northeastern. She will begin working full time at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the fall.

Caroline Katsiroubas, a junior sociology and environmental studies major, was in charge of checking in on her classmates’ progress and helping connect them to organizations. She also connected people with similar projects to one another and encouraged them to collaborate and promoted all of the student-held events any projects conducted.

“We need to start now and take active measures and come up with more proactive measures in order to save what we have left and rehabilitate the environment we’re living in,” she said. “We are in an urban campus so people may not want anything to do with the environment, but the environment is calling us and we need to protect that and create lifestyle changes that are healthy and sustainable.”

A past project resulted in Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) installating dual flush toilets in its new building. Another student last year, this time at Suffolk University, created a rain garden at a local elementary school in Jamaica Plain.

“I have a student who worked with Oxfam and helped the company with the campaign, five students working with elementary students environmental issues as part of their education and another student working with elementary students in Jamaica Plain,” said Dehner, who has been assigning this project since 2008.

Dehner met with each student four times outside of class, to make sure each could and would fulfill their semester-long goals.

Anderson Page, senior political science and environmental studies major, worked with The Food Project. The organization works with more than 140 teens and thousands of volunteers to farm on 37 acres in Beverly, Boston, Ipswich, Lincoln and Lynn, and then distribute that food through the group’s own community-supported agriculture programs, farmers’ markets and hunger relief organizations. During his time with the organization, Page handcrafted an amadinda – a Ugandan xylophone – made completely from recycled word, and put in the children’s garden on the Lincoln farm.

Another student, senior environmental studies major John Peterson worked with the city of Boston and BigBelly – solar trash cans found around campus and the city – to come up with a plan to relocate some of the trash cans. Peterson constructed a map of places in need for waste management (specifically in Dudley Square).

Senior international affairs and environmental studies major Gwen Kildera created a photography website to reach out to people passionate about photography, volunteering, and/or the environment, ThePhotographyLeague.com. The site was inspired by the Film and Photo League in the 1920s, which was a group created by documentary photographers in New York City who worked to capture important events which generally weren’t published in the press. The Photo League disbanded in 1951 after accusations it had ties to Communism, so Kildera set out to revive the organization and shed light on issues that aren’t commonly documented, in this case, related to the environment.

Another project, by junior international affairs and environmental studies major Catia Sharp and junior international affairs and environmental studies major Shannon Campbell, included hosting a movie screening on campus April 5 of “Sisters on the Planet,” a documentary about women and climate change produced by Oxfam, and an Oxfam representative attended the event. Oxfam is a group of 15 organizations working in more than 90 countries in search of lasting solutions to poverty and injustice. While Sharp and Campbell did other projects on their own, both in the realm of food justice, they collaborated together for this part of their CEPs.

Senior journalism major MacKenzie Swanhart incorporated her writing skills into her project. She wrote columns for Her Campus Northeastern about recycling and how to be green. Some of her articles include “Ban the Bottle Challenge: Can You Ditch the Water Bottle?,” “Going Green in Your Fitness Routine” and “Green a Little, Save a Lot: 10 Ways to ‘Go Green’ on a Collegiate Budget.”

Dehner said Swanhart’s presentation is a good example of passion while simultaneously educating the Northeastern community.

Katsiroubas said her classmates’ projects impacted her and proud of what they all have accomplished.

“This is on top of our rigorous coursework and internships and collaborating with organizations on top of everything else that’s going on in our lives,” she said. “The fact that people were even able to accomplish anything is absolutely amazing. People were really excited for this project and the organization they were working with. Everyone picked a project they were interested in and their heart was into so everyone really loved what they were working on.”

Dehner said she is proud of her students and thought they all did a phenomenal job.

“I would say 90 percent of the projects were extremely successful,” she said. “And I think success is tied to very much how hard you work. I think the students learned a lot about how to become successful. I think my students have learned tremendous abilities about their capabilities upon going into this project.”

Her students learned more than just about the positive environmental policy changes in their community, Dehner said.

“Sometimes, even if the environmental outcome didn’t meet their expectations, the educational outcome exceeded their expectations,” she said.