Students Have Helped Drive Many Campus and Community Innovations
There are a variety of student organizations at Florida Tech that work directly & indirectly on sustainability issues, often together (e.g., Earth Week, Homecoming, etc.). Access to information on all Florida Tech student organizations is easy using Engage. Student organizations working sustainability issues include:
- Student Organization for Sustainability Action: SOSA works to bring best practices in sustainability to the Florida Tech campus and Space Coast community. Conducts projects and events on- and off-campus, many tied to academic sustainability initiatives. Projects are varied and include Spring and Fall Earth Week events and other activities with dozens of campus and community partners.
- Residence Life Sustainability Committee: This committee is composed of Residence Hall Advisors and Directors from all campus housing areas. These undergraduate and graduate students created the Ethos Community Garden, manage the Leave Green program to recycle materials during the end-of-year move-out, and manage other campus energy and recycling projects.
- Florida Tech Student Government Association (SGA): SGA acts as a liaison between the student body and the faculty, staff, and administration by presenting programs and activities that reflect consensus priorities of the student body. SGA is a leading partner and founder of many sustainability activities around campus.
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Keuper Palm Botanical Society: To preserve, cultivate, and share the rich botanical heritage at Florida Tech while fostering a personal connection within the Joy and Gordon Patterson Botanical Garden. This is achieved by actively restoring and maintaining the garden, so that members of the campus and community may enjoy the garden and the activities within. The Society also seeks to actively raise awareness of the garden’s history and biodiversity.
- Sustainability Outdoors Adventure Recreation Survival: SOARS was founded by Eagle Scouts to instill scouting principles into a Florida Tech outdoor organization. The focus is on outdoor adventures including camping, hiking, fishing, backpacking, sustainability, conservation, and wilderness survival. SOARS members aspire to not only have a great time but to also further their love and knowledge for the outdoors, and to help each other grow as people.
- Ethos Community Garden Club: Operates the community garden which generates food harvests from the Residential Quad on campus. This work includes organizing volunteers and renters, maintaining garden production, and sustaining sponsor relationships. The club catalyzes student involvement in the garden and helps advance sustainability on campus and in the community.
- Squamish: An environmentally-focused student group with interests in activism, awareness, and social networking. Squamish has led Jungle clean-ups throughout our wonderful botanical gardens since the 1970s and also participated in many beach clean-ups.
To add your student organization to this list, please contact sustainability@253000xa.com.