Yale Environmental Student Groups and Organizations

The large list of environmental student groups and organizations that have been created over the last several years reflect the growing interest of students to become become more involved in projects and activities related to environmental issues at Yale. By participating in one of the organizations listed below, students have made important contributions in promoting a more sustainable campus and community.

Yale Student Environmental Coalition (YSEC)
http://ysec.commons.yale.edu/
The Yale Student Environment Coalition is a non-profit, student-run group at Yale University. YSEC is dedicated to greening the Yale community and the surrounding area, and promoting environmental protection regionally, nationally, and internationally. YSEC was founded in 1986 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit group. YSEC has a Board of Overseers composed of Yale faculty, key YSEC alumni, and other environmental leaders. The Board meets twice a year to advise the Steering Committee and Co-Chairs on proposed and current projects, and to approve the budget. The Co-Chairs and Board of Overseers work solely on a volunteer basis. It receives generous support from the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Dwight Hall, and the Social Justice Network.

Yale Sustainable Food Project
http://www.yale.edu/sustainablefood/
Every day, food offers us the opportunity to engage with the world around us. By gathering people around shared food, shared work, and shared inquiry, the Yale Sustainable Food Project fosters a culture that draws meaning and pleasure from the connections among people, land, and food. The Sustainable Food Project directs a sustainable dining program at Yale, manages an organic farm on campus, and runs diverse programs that support exploration and academic inquiry related to food and agriculture.

Yale Student Taskforce for Environmental Partnership (STEP)
http://www.yale.edu/step/
Student Taskforce for Environmental Partnership, (STEP) is a program designed to educate Yale students and the Yale community about sustainability and to foster a community ethic of environmental stewardship and sustainable behavior.

Yale Office of Sustainability
http://www.yale.edu/sustainability/index.html
Yale's Office of Sustainability, which reports jointly to the Office of Facilities and the Office of the Provost, was created to generate increased momentum and facilitate the process of developing and implementing best sustainability practices at Yale. We intend to do this by adding new energy to the community's historical grassroots sustainability efforts, and to the University's early formal mechanisms, such as the Provost's Advisory Committee on Environmental Management. The Office of Sustainability is committed to engaging students and hosts the Student Sustainability Forum every fall and often employs many students as research assistants throughout the year.

Yale Engineers Without Borders
http://www.yale.edu/ewb/
Engineers Without Borders is a non-profit humanitarian organization established to partner with developing communities worldwide in order to improve their quality of life. This partnership involves the implementation of sustainable engineering projects, while involving and training internationally responsible engineers and engineering students.  The Yale Chapter of EWB was founded in 2004. Since then, we have worked hard to bring several projects to fruition. In 2006, we completed our first international project by building a water collection system in El Rosario, Honduras. We are currently working on a project to bring clean water to 1,000 villagers in Kikoo, Cameroon. Please see our Projects page for more details! The Yale Chapter of EWB is an undergraduate organization made up of students heralding from a variety of backgrounds. We also have extremely dedicated professional mentors and faculty advisors. We draw strength from diversity, imagination, and commitment.

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Yale Reach Out
http://www.yale.edu/reachout/
Reach Out’s mission is to provide Yale students with opportunities to learn about, travel to, and engage in hands-on work in developing countries. Through our programs, we hope to equip Yale students with the tools and experiences they need to work against poverty, environmental degradation and human rights abuses internationally. In a world in which technological and economic interdependence often surpass cultural and social understanding, Reach Out hopes to build personal relationships between Yale students and people from other countries, and thereby promote the sense of global accountability, understanding and cooperation needed to achieve an international community.

Yale Harvest
http://www.yaleharvest.org/
On Harvest, groups of incoming freshmen spend five days in August on family-owned, organic farms in Connecticut, before the start of on-campus orientation. There, freshmen experience all aspects of farm life, from picking vegetables to baking bread to feeding chickens. Afternoons and evenings usually find students cooling off in local rivers, playing games of zucchini baseball, and hanging out around a campfire. Harvest trips provide a unique opportunity for freshmen to enjoy the outdoors, learn about sustainable agriculture in Connecticut, and make friends, before the start of on-campus orientation and classes at Yale.

Yale Freshmen Outdoor Orientation Trips (FOOT)
http://www.yale.edu/foot/
Currently in its twenty-fourth year, FOOT offers a unique wilderness experience to approximately 400 Yale freshmen each year. In late August, trained upperclassmen will lead backpacking trips in eight scenic locations throughout the Northeast. The trips return to Yale's campus on freshman move-in day, allowing students to move in with the rest of their classmates. FOOT is for everyone! The trips are designed for all levels of experience; complete novices as well as skilled mountaineers will find the trips rewarding. The primary goal of each and every FOOT trip is to ease the transition to life at Yale for freshmen. Not only do trip leaders have extensive training in keeping FOOTies safe and healthy in the backcountry; they are experienced counselors and offer a wealth of support, advice, and friendship. The competitive nature of the application process (one applicant in three is accepted) ensures that FOOT leaders have the best to offer incoming freshmen.

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Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) - Student Interest Groups and Research Centers
http://environment.yale.edu/index.html
F&ES is the graduate and professional school that looks to provide national and international leadership in environmental education, management, and policy in response to the urgent and increasingly complex challenges of the new century. While the Yale undergraduate Environmental Studies Program (EVST) and major are strongly affiliated with F&ES, EVST is not a part of F&ES.  Many of the F&ES faculty teach courses in the EVST major and serve as academic advisors to EVST students.  Other ways that Yale College students have become more involved at F&ES include the following:  becoming employed as a research assistant at one of the F&ES research centers or participating in one of the F&ES student interest groups (i.e. Forestry Club, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Industrial Environmental Management and Energy, Sustainable Development, Society for Conservation Biology, etc.).

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