Scott J. Peters

Developing citizens and communities through youth environmental action

Although several studies have examined learning outcomes of environmental action experiences for youth, little is known about the aims motivating practitioners to involve youth in action creating positive environmental and social change, nor how practitioners perceive success. This research explored through phenomenological interviews practitioners’ purposes for using an environmental action approach. Practitioners in this inquiry, who engaged youth in action addressing a range of environmental issues in varied programmatic and community contexts in the US, expressed multifaceted aims motivating their educational practice. Interpretation of practitioners’ stories with respect to their purposes and perceptions of success contributed to a conceptual framework relating environmental action to the development of citizens and sustainable communities. Whereas others have described the stages and learning outcomes of environmental action, this inquiry illustrates the potential of environmental action for concurrently realizing individual and community level impacts.

Historical Base, Evolution and Future Directions of Civic Engagement and Service Learning at Cornell University

Cornell University occupies a unique niche in the landscape of American higher education. Founded as the land grant university for the State of New York, it has from its beginning also been a private university. Its founder, Ezra Cornell, was a New York State assemblyman at the time of the passage of the Morrill Land Grant Act. Not formally educated, he had secured, lost and earned again a fortune as an entrepreneur. By the mid 1860’s, he had amassed considerable wealth from exploitation of a device he invented for the purpose of stringing the telegraph wires for Samuel Morse.