EcoVillagers Explore Sustainability Outside of the Classroom

Colin Moore joined the Wolfpack last fall as a first-year student in computer science. He is one of 100 students in the EcoVillage, which is located in Bragaw Hall. Students, or EcoVillagers as they’re called, enroll in Introduction to Sustainability for EcoVillage (USC 298) during their time in the village. In the fall semester, Moore participated in the NC State Libraries Multimedia Research Contest as part of the class. The theme of this year’s contest was “The Sustainability Balancing Act: Society, Economy, and Environment.”

Colin Moore participated in the project in December. He said the most interesting part of the project was to see the variety of topics and how each group put their projects together in a visually appealing way. Moore also added of his excitement about the libraries’ involvement, “Sustainability is a major issue that our generation is going to be tasked with solving, so the more people buy into the concept, the farther the message spreads.”

Meghan Teten serves as the director of the EcoVillage and the instructor of USC 298. She was excited to collaborate with campus partners, like the NC State Libraries, that take an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability. Teten typically assigns a different final project but decided to use last semester as a pilot to participate in the multimedia research contest. She thought the libraries staff equipped her students well for the contest and said the contest gave students the opportunity to familiarize themselves with library resources such as digital media production workshops.  

After attending NC State for her undergraduate career, Rebekah Dunstan formally took a job involved in the work of sustainability right here on campus. She is a program coordinator in the University Sustainability Office that works to educate the campus community about sustainability. Dunstan infuses campus with sustainability in collaborative ways and takes an interdisciplinary approach to collaboration by involving student organizations, Living and Learning Villages, and academic departments in the discussion about what sustainability looks like at NC State. Dunstan is also the advisor of NC State Stewards, a group of sustainability student leaders working to move campus to a more sustainable future. Dunstan says there is a lot of overlap between the EcoVillage and Stewards.

Former EcoVillager Annie Lopez currently serves as student coordinator for the Stewards program. Lopez moved into the EcoVillage her second year and was met with a passionate group of peers that she continues to work with on sustainability issues. Lopez added, “I would not have gotten to the point I am now in my work on sustainability without that network of friends.”

Through partnerships with NC State Stewards, University Sustainability Office, NC State Libraries, and other campus partners, the EcoVillage is preparing its residents to apply their knowledge of sustainability in interdisciplinary ways outside of the village.

EcoVillage, NC State Stewards, and the Sustainability Fund were all introduced in 2013 as part  of the university’s Sustainability Strategic Plan. Since its introduction, the EcoVillage has grown to almost 100 residents whose majors range from programs in College of Natural Resources, Engineering, Sciences, Humanities, and Poole College of Management.