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WesThrift, Wesleyan’s student-run free thrift store, has quickly become a key space on campus. Wesleyan Sustainability Office eco-facilitators Annie Volker ’24 and Debbra Goh ’24 opened the store in fall 2022. Located in the basement of the COE at 284 High Street, WesThrift is open Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 12-1:30 pm, except during breaks, and operates entirely on donations from students, staff, and community members.
Malana Rogers-Bursen has joined the COE as project coordinator for the Robert F. Schumann Institute of the COE, a new position funded by the recent 5-year $2-million grant from the Robert F. Schumann Foundation to focus on the areas of food security, environmental justice, and sustainability.
From the shores of Block Island, Rhode Island, the United States’s first commercial wind farm can be seen on the horizon. The Block Island Wind Farm is comprised of five turbines that tower over the deep blue waters. Deepwater Wind LLC constructed the 30-MW project which became operational in 2016. Ørsted, Denmark’s largest energy company and world-leader in offshore wind, acquired Deepwater Wind LLC in 2018.
The Robert F. Schumann Foundation has generously awarded the College of the Environment (COE) a 5-year, $2-million grant to focus on the areas of food security, environmental justice, and sustainability. The Schumann Institute of the COE will be adding new positions to enhance teaching, research, and community engagement; building a network of local community organizations that specialize in the areas of food security, environmental justice, and sustainability; providing opportunities for Wesleyan environmental studies students to work with these organizations to help their efforts; and creating a “pipeline” of professional training for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and professors of the practice so that they will have the skills and knowledge needed to contribute importantly when they leave Wesleyan. Enhanced courses; student immersion in community engagement projects; student internships; campus and community seminars, symposia, and workshops; scholarly output on environmental issues; and other related activities will all be supported with the grant.