Motivating sustainability—SUNY Oswego’s Chelsea Frisbie (left), talks with fellow students last spring about Garbage Pail Kids, a social-media driven campaign she led to educate her peers about recycling. The recent graduate’s efforts helped the college earn silver-level recognition in Purposeful Networks’ national Student Actions Awards for spring 2015.
SUNY Oswego recently achieved the silver level in Purposeful Networks’ Student Actions Awards for spring 2015, earning the honor for demonstrated student leadership and engagement in activities that positively impact the community and the planet.
My Student Actions, formerly called myActions, recognized 125 colleges and universities nationwide. Among the several dozen institutions earning silver recognition, Oswego joined three of SUNY’s university centers—Albany, Buffalo and Stony Brook—and SUNY Geneseo.
“The power of student leaders to build community and inspire action for causes and programs they support is tremendous,” said Kristine Sturgeon, president of Purposeful Networks, which creates digital platforms and programs to encourage and mobilize global citizenship.
Jamie Adams, the college’s sustainability programming coordinator, expressed delight with the honor on behalf of student sustainability leaders.
“Everything we do in the Sustainability Office is dedicated to community-wide interests,” Adams said. “For me on the operations level, it has grown to where students are really starting to sit up and take notice.”
She credited two student leaders, recent graduate Chelsea Frisbie and sophomore Peterly Jean Baptiste, with helping secure My Student Actions recognition for the college.
Frisbie, then a broadcasting and mass communications major, led Garbage Pail Kids, a peer-to-peer recycling-education program relying both on social media and on a team of student volunteers stationed at waste containers around campus. Frisbie’s efforts earned one of four honorable mentions in myActions’ 3R (Reuse-Reduce-Recycle) Actions Challenge last spring. Jean Baptiste, a language and international trade and French dual major, worked with Frisbie and has taken leadership this fall of Garbage Pail Kids.
“Social media is huge in motivating students, whether it’s to recycle, compost or to text and tweet others to join in,” Adams said. “It means students are not only excited about doing the actions but sharing the news about them.”