SIUE to Host its Annual Sustainability Workshop on Aug. 14
Innovative ways to merge the classroom with the community is the topic of the next sustainability conference on Monday, Aug. 14 at the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
“We are charting a new path for sustainability at SIUE that will involve more stakeholders, including SIUE students, faculty and staff and community members,” said Connie Frey Spurlock, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Studies.
Frey Spurlock is co-facilitator of the “From Classroom to Community: Building Partnerships and Educational Impact for Sustainability” conference with Katy Mike Smaistrla, sustainability energy and environmental coordinator for the Office of Environmental Health and Safety at the University of Missouri – St. Louis.
The conference will run from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m., and is free. Resource experts for the conference will be Kim Petzing, resource management coordinator for Madison County Planning and Development Office, and Megan Arnett, the first recipient of SIUE's new Post Baccalaureate Certificate (PBC) of Integrative Studies in Sustainability. To register for the workshop, contact Frey Spurlock at cfrey@siue.edu.
SIUE’s new sustainability initiative will also be introduced at the workshop, according to Frey Spurlock. To strengthen and further sustainability efforts at the University, SIUE developed a new program, SIUE Successful Communities Collaborative (SSCC), modeled after Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities (EPIC).
The new collaborative, coordinated by Tim Engelman, associate director of Educational Outreach, will be discussed at the sustainability conference. SSCC is a multi-disciplinary program that 
brings the University together with communities to jointly work on sustainability projects identified by the local municipalities.
The conference is the seventh annual Mississippi Project workshop that facilitates a process whereby educators in the region identify ways they can incorporate sustainability into their course work and into their classrooms.
“We are expecting influential scholars and stake holders in the area of sustainability to attend the conference on Aug. 14,” Frey Spurlock said. “SIUE continues to remain out front in setting the tone and working towards sustainability advances in the region. In the coming years, our University will be a sustainability hub in the Midwest.”
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Kim Petzing is the Resource Management Coordinator for Madison County Planning and Development Office.
Megan Arnett is the first recipient of SIUE's new Post Baccalaureate Certificate (PBC) of Integrative Studies in Sustainability.
