Engaging the World
Sustainability Abroad
Dickinson’s Center for Global Study & Engagement offers students opportunities to learn first hand about the environment and sustainability in communities and cultures around the world. These include semester and year-long programs at the University of East Anglia in the UK, Yaounde University in Cameroon, University of Bremen in Germany, University of Queensland in Australia and, closer to home, the Marine Biological Lab in Woodshole, MA. There are also summer sustainability programs in Cameroon, China, Germany, and Israel. Many of our programs offer opportunities for community service, service learning and research.
Mosaics: A Deep Dive
Dickinson students dive deep into collaborative work with communities, both domestic and abroad, through immersive, team-taught, semester-long, multi-course, interdisciplinary Mosaic programs. The topics are wide ranging, and have included sustainable agriculture in Cuba and Venezuela, climate change in South Africa, the geology and sociology of natural disasters in Montserrat, watersheds of the Chesapeake and lower Mississippi River basin, and natural history in Central Pennsylvania. The Community Studies Center supports the development and implementation of Mosaic programs.
Transboundary Resource Management
Dickinson faculty led an international exchange program, “Across Borders: Managing Trans-Boundary Environmental Resources in the Middle East and the United States” that brought a group of young professionals from the US to the Middle East in 2011. In 2012, a group of young professionals from the Middle East came to the US. Each exchange group spent four-weeks in the visited region examining how environmental, economic, social and political factors converge to influence policy and practice in the management of transboundary environmental resources, and making comparisons with their home region. The program was funded by a $500,000 grant from the US Department of State.
US-India Collaborations for Sustainable Development
Professors Fratantuono and Sarcone of Dickinson’s department of International Business and Management, in partnership with the US Army War College, convened workshops in 2013 and 2014 that brought leaders from US and Indian academic, military, security and business fields to discuss US-India cross-sector collaboration and sustainable development. The workshops are supported by grants from the US Department of Defense’s Strategic Studies Institute.
Dickinson at the UN Climate Negotiations
Delegations of Dickinson students and faculty have attended negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Copenhagen, Cancun, Durban, Lima, and Paris. The delegations meet with and interview delegates from national governments, civil society organizations, scientific institutions and youth groups, exchanging views on climate policy, society and advocacy.
Honoring Global Environmental Activism
The first Sam Rose ’58 and Julie Walters Prize at Dickinson College for Environmental Global Activism has been awarded to Bill McKibben, Lisa Jackson, James Balog, Mark Ruffalo, and Elizabeth Kolbert. The $100,000 prize is given annually to recognize individuals or organizations that have made a defining difference by advancing responsible action on behalf of the planet, its resources and people. The prize was created by Dickinson alumnus Sam Rose and his wife Julie Walters in honor of John Adams, founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Awardees attend Commencement and host residencies in the academic year, interact with students and faculty, and conduct public lectures.