Pine River Collaboration Selected as Award Finalist
Alma College’s partnership with the Pine River Superfund Citizen
Task Force has been selected as a finalist for Michigan’s 2007 Carter
Partnership Award.
The partnership is one of four campus-community partnerships identified
by the Carter Award Selection Committee. Recognition and $10,000 will
be awarded to one of the four finalists June 20 at the Fox Theatre in
Detroit during the annual Governor’s Service Awards Dinner.
Organized by Michigan Campus Compact (MCC), the Jimmy and Rosalynn
Carter Partnership Award for Campus-Community Collaboration recognizes
colleges and community groups that work together in exceptional ways to
improve peoples’ lives and help college students learn the value of
community service.
The Pine River was declared a Superfund site in the 1970s due to
accidental PBB and DDT contamination. In 1998, the Environmental
Protection Agency determined the river was not undergoing the expected
“natural attenuation” of the chemical DDT. After learning of the EPA’s
recognition of emergency removal and remedial action of DDT
contamination, Alma College and the community collaborated to form the
Pine River Superfund Citizen Task Force, an EPA-sanctioned Community
Advisory Group (CAG).
The Task Force is recognized as one of the most influential and active
CAGs nationally and as having the largest membership of any CAG in the
United States.
“The success of the college-CAG partnership can in many ways be
attributed to the program’s extensive opportunities for involvement,
seeking and incorporating diverse interests and skills to enable a
multi-faceted, meaningful and creative collaboration with its members,”
says Anne Ritz, service learning coordinator at Alma College.
“Students can become part of this partnership through research, course
work and independent study in a variety of subjects and academic
fields,” she says. “The Alma College technology group, for example,
created the Pine River Website, which archives information about the
river’s past and current pollution and progress. Even first-year
students new to the community actively involve themselves and seniors
in the collaboration, participating in a cross-listed
service-learning/English/environmental science class that implemented
the Historical St. Louis project. “
The college-community team hosts forums and speakers, provides outreach
programs and public meetings, and sponsors the annual fishing derby in
St. Louis, among other events and activities, said Ritz. The CAG also
has enabled community members and college students to interact with
government officials and environmental agencies. Students and faculty
also experience the benefits of hands-on learning and how their
involvement positively impacts and influences the people,
organizations, and environment around them.
The MCC promotes the education and commitment of Michigan college
students to be civically engaged citizens, through creating and
expanding academic, co-curricular and campus wide opportunities for
community service, service-learning and civic engagement. MCC was chose
by the Award founders to the3ost the award in Michigan. The purpose of
the award mirrors the purpose of the Michigan Campus Compact.
Posted: Wed, May 23rd, 2007 at 7:35AM
