For their community partner, Blue Heron Nature Preserve, Ava and Milo researched and created educational signage for a native plant and pollinator garden. Their 8-foot sign included facts about plants, insects, and birds that may be found in the garden as well as original art rendering the flora and fauna of the preserve. This spring, they mounted it in the garden at a height that would make it accessible to all visitors, including children.
In addition to volunteering at the Freedom Farmers Market and Doghead Farm, Elena and Viraj teamed up to design TWO projects for their community partner, Concrete Jungle: one public-facing social media campaign, and one internally-focused data model of the organization’s volunteer pathways.
You can check out Elena’s campaign, Fruit Fact Fridays, as it appears week to week on Concrete Jungle’s Instagram (no spoilers!).
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I am a lecturer in English at Georgia State University, where I earned my Ph.D. in transatlantic modernism with a secondary emphasis in global postmodern and contemporary literatures in 2014. I also hold an M.F.A. in creative nonfiction and narrative poetry from Georgia College (GCSU) in Flannery O’Connor’s hometown of Milledgeville, GA.
My recent teaching and research interests include experimental life writing, autotheory, feminist new materialism, speculative fiction, and Anthropocene studies. My non-academic, but not uncritical interests include hiking, camping, birding, and indoor and outdoor gardening. I have lived briefly in Toulouse, France, where I had a research fellowship at the University of Toulouse–Jean Jaurès, Gualala, CA, and Tampa, FL. These days, I live in Atlanta, GA with my partner, our dog Elvis, and 60 houseplants (mostly philodendrons).
My interest in the Environmental Humanities is grounded in a set of questions about the ways familiar and new narratives about the natural world, and our interactions within it, participate in determining our collective future in a time of global climate crisis. Do the stories we tell ourselves about humans and nature limit our relationships to other living beings? Can we learn to tell better stories about our existence within ecological and planetary contexts? Can those stories teach us to live differently on this planet? This course reflects an extension of that line of questioning into practical spaces where local ecology and community engagement converge, recognizing that there are many ways to tell a story and multiple literacies of place.
In its first semester, the Honors Service-Learning Seminar in Urban Ecology and Environmental Conservation enrolled thirteen intrepid students, representing a wide range of majors and disciplines throughout the university. For the first seven weeks of Spring 2023, these students gathered in the classroom with Dr. Shannon Finck twice a week to read about and discuss the nature of/in cities. During the next seven weeks, they would each be matched with one of six participating community partners–environmental justice and conservation organizations operating in the metro Atlanta area–to undertake independently designed service-learning projects, developed in conjunction with these organizations.
In this blog, students reflect on their service-learning experiences and document the development of their projects. You can read about who they are, what they’re working on, and what they’re learning by following and checking in with us periodically.
“The Amphibian Foundation is dedicated to connecting individuals, communities and organizations in order to create and implement lasting solutions to the global amphibian extinction crisis. We provide unique educational opportunities for all ages to learn about amphibians and inspire conservation. Established in 2016 by Mark and Crystal Mandica, we collaborate with partners in the fight against amphibian extinction.”
“Atlanta is rich in creeks. The city sprawls across three river basins—the Chattahoochee River, Flint River, and South River— and within each basin are dozens of streams. Some creeks are famous, some completely hidden, and all of them make Atlanta green and cool and wild. Atlanta Creek League helps people find, enjoy, and take care of the creeks in their neighborhood. Using the model of a baseball league — Creek Teams, River Divisions — we’re making it easy to rally around our natural resources the like sportsball fans do.”
“Nestled in Atlanta’s North Buckhead neighborhood, Blue Heron Nature Preserve is home to the 3-mile Blueway Trail which allows visitors to experience 30 acres of woodlands, wetlands, riparian areas and meadows – all without leaving the city. The Blue Heron Nature Preserve in Atlanta aims to preserve and enhance the 30 acres of natural habitat entrusted to us, especially the Blueway Trail, which is critical to our mission of creating a personal experience with nature.”
“One in eight Georgians are food insecure, lacking reliable access to affordable, nutritious food, thus contributing to negative health outcomes. Food-insecure individuals are 2-3 times more likely to have diet-related chronic disease such as diabetes, heart disease and hypertension. At the same time, food loss and waste in the US is higher than any other country. Concrete Jungle exists in the gap between food insecurity and food waste.”
“We aim to inspire the love of nature and cultivate environmental understanding and stewardship through a variety of programs and activities that engage the public and provide our community with a sense of place within the natural world. As a private, non-profit organization operating primarily out of Dunwoody Park, the Nature Center enjoys a strong and supportive public/private partnership with the City of Dunwoody. In addition to running mission based programs throughout the year, we are committed to enhancing and preserving Dunwoody Park for the enjoyment of the community. We are a living lab that is environmentally sustainable, inclusive and accessible to all.”
“Wild Nest Bird Rehab, Inc. is a nonprofit charity dedicated to rehabilitating wild songbirds for release back to the wild. We accept orphaned songbirds and injured songbirds and serve Atlanta and surrounding areas. Along with our rehabilitation services, our mission includes educating the public about how to attract and support native songbird species through native landscaping, the dangers to our songbird populations, and the important role songbirds play in our environment.”