Experiences from Montrose - Tendai Kwaramba

Tendai at Black Canyon

The trip to Montrose, Colorado was so rewarding, it's really hard to pick one moment or time that was a favorite. We were in such a beautiful place with such beautiful people, it was great. The service opportunity we got at Sonrise Family Camp was perfect. It allowed us the chance to actually start and complete projects which was really what we were going for, and seeing the work we had done which included building a deck, sanding and varnishing cabins and putting up plywoood was so gratifying. That feeling when we were done, that would have to be my favorite part of the trip.

Tendai (Zimbabwe) is a senior. She will be graduating in December (2012) and then heading to medical school.

Experiences from Montrose - Elle Nguyen

Going to Montrose, CO with the green team was so much fun!

My favorite part of trip was just sightseeing around Sonrise [Mountain Ranch]. Riding in the back of Roger’s truck up to the mountain, with Sarah, Stephen, Daniel, Joey, Jason and I having the cold wind blow into our faces. Seeing the Reservoir Lake with the mountains behind while having the sun setting, along with the Aspen trees with their white trunks and lime green leaves below the mountains, it was a sight to behold. Then going up even higher up to the mountains to see the waterfall, while driving up there occasionally see some Elk and snow on the ground, then having difficulty up the hill to just see the waterfall. Since I’m so short and don’t know how to walk on snow, I kept falling knee deep into the snow. The funniest part of me trying to get up the hill was when I slipped on the snow and backed into Sarah, such an awkward position but it was sure funny! Besides that it was wonderful to see the waterfall with the huge amount of snow underneath it.

Elle celebrates after a hard (and dusty) day of work!

The evenings personally for me, were the best part of the trip. I remember one night after talking with everyone, I decided to go back to my cabin to get a good night’s rest, preparing for the next day’s hard work. As I stepped outside I looked up at the sky and all the stars illuminate so bright. The brightest I have ever saw in my life, not to mention seeing as many as I saw that night. I also got to see a shooting star, and of course I made a wish! I know it doesn’t seem like much but living in the city such as Wichita, KS it has a fair amount of air pollution, you'd be lucky enough to see Venus shining in the distance at night at my house. So seeing all those stars was breath taking!

Helping at Sonrise with Roger was a blast, despite the hard work on the two cabins. I have never really worked that hard in my life, truth be told, so sanding and varnishing the East Fork Cabin was certainly a successful and rewarding project. Sanding was such a hard job, seeing as every once in a while I would get sod dust stuck in my eyes and I had a few close calls with my fingers being so close to the sanding blade, although it was fun and well worth the effort. After it was all finished, the East Fork Cabin, and the West Fork Deck looked pretty epically awesome!

Overall the trip was AMAZING!

Elle (Wichita) will be a sophomore at Southwestern College in the Fall of 2012.

Experiences from Montrose - Cali Portenier

Cali (red) helps build a deck on a cabin at Sonrise

I (Cali) really liked the trip to Montrose. I liked just spending time, and getting to know everyone. I think my favorite part was honestly just our free time, going bowling, shopping, and playing apples to apples. I really got to know everyone a lot better, on a more personal level. 

I absolutely loved all the time we spent at [Sonrise Mountain Ranch] the ranch! I loved building the deck and helping Roger and all those great people. The ranch was beautiful and it felt great for helping out. The people we met were all fantastic, and good hearted people!! I had an amazing time and I am glad I got to go and experience it!

Cali (Grenola, KS) was a freshman at Southwestern during the 2011-2012 school year.

Green Team Service Trip to Montrose, Colorado

Green Team students at Black Canyon

This past May, ten students from Green Team Southwestern travelled to Montrose, Colorado to hike and have fun in the mountains and to perform service work at the nearby Sonrise Mountain Ranch. The team, led by Green Team director Jason Speegle, travelled from Winfield, KS to Montrose on Tuesday, May 8. The first day of their time in Colorado, the group went exploring at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Black Canyon is the steepest canyon in the United States, some 2250 feet deep in sections.

On May 10, the team travelled 30 minutes from Montrose to Sonrise Mountain Ranch, a family Christian campground on the Big Cimarron Mountain. Nestled on the mountainside at an elevation of around 8500 feet, Sonrise Mountain Ranch hosts and ministers to families during the summer months by conducting marriage and family retreats and mission trips. The Green Team students spent 4 days working at Sonrise, helping Roger and Val Drown prepare cabins for the upcoming retreat season. During those four days, the students built a deck, replaced old plywood, sanded two cabins and varnished a cabin. “Service is such an important aspect of the Green Team and the culture of Southwestern. It was a tremendous blessing to be able to help Sonrise prepare for their summer ministry, and the location was simply breathtaking” said Speegle.

The students on the Green Team enjoy working hard, but they like to have fun too. During their trip to Colorado, the group went hiking, fly fishing, roasted S’mores over a campfire, visited a nearby waterfall, and played their favorite game, Apples to Apples. The team also visited the town of Ouray, a small mountain town famous for its hot springs.

Green Team after a hard day of work at Sonrise

“The trip to Montrose/Sonrise was a tremendous team experience and a wonderful way to celebrate the end of the school year. I am so proud of the students who went on the trip. They worked so hard and went above and beyond, because they wanted to help Sonrise. They always amaze me!” said Speegle.

I (Jason Speegle) have asked the students who went on the trip to write a brief paragraph about their experience on the trip. The students who travelled to Montrose are Mark Strecker (Tonkawa, OK), Stephen Strecker (Tonkawa, OK), Sarah Rommelfanger (Baldwin City, KS), Tendai Kwaramba (Zimbabwe), Daniel Van Sickle (Maize, KS), Joey Tran (Arlington, TX), Bri Cathcart (Fort Collins, CO), Cali Portenier (Grenola, KS), Harrison Wynn (Mulvane, KS), and Elle Nguyen (Wichita, KS). I hope to post their thoughts over the next couple of weeks, so check back frequently.

Green Team Students Host Booth at Fair

Several Green Team students hosted a booth at this spring's Cowley County Health and Safety Fair on April 21. The purpose of the booth was to attempt to raise awareness of the City of Winfield's curbside recycling program. "As a small city, we are blessed to have curbside recycling and free composting facilities provided by the City of Winfield. Our hope is that more people will utilize these services and reduce the amount of waste entering our landfill," says Jason Speegle, Green Team Director.

The students who participated in the fair were Sydnee Nelson, Elle Nguyen, and Mark Strecker.

Southwestern College Recognized for Community Service

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and the U.S. Department of Education has honored the nation’s leading colleges and universities, students, faculty members, and staff for their commitment to bettering their communities through community service and service learning.

Southwestern College was admitted to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for its emphasis on service learning through its three service learning organizations; Leadership Southwestern, discipleship, and Green Team Southwestern. 

“Through service, these institutions are creating the next generation of leaders by challenging students to tackle tough issues and create positive impacts in the community,” said Robert Velasco, Acting CEO of CNCS. “We applaud the Honor Roll schools, their faculty, and students for their commitment to make service a priority in and out of the classroom. Together, service and learning increase civic engagement while fostering social innovation among students, empowering them to solve challenges within their communities.”

“Preparing students to participate in our democracy and providing them with opportunities to take on local and global issues in their course work are as central to the mission of education as boosting college completion and closing the achievement gap,” said Eduardo Ochoa, the U.S. Department of Education’s assistant secretary for postsecondary education.  “The Honor Roll schools should be proud of their work to elevate the role of service-learning on their campuses.   Galvanizing their students to become involved in projects that address pressing concerns and enrich their academic experience has a lasting impact – both in the communities in which they work and on their own sense of purpose as citizens of the world. I hope we’ll see more and more colleges and universities following their lead.”

CNCS oversees the Honor Roll in collaboration with the U.S. Departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact, and the American Council on Education. Honorees are chosen based on a series of selection factors, including the scope and innovation of service projects, the extent to which service-learning is embedded in the curriculum, the school’s commitment to long-term campus-community partnerships, and measurable community outcomes as a result of the service.

Green Team Presents Heart of Leadership Environmental Service Award

On Tuesday, February 14, Green Team Southwestern students, Sydnee Nelson (Clay Center), Stephen Strecker (Tonkawa, OK), and Elle Nguyen (Wichita) traveled to Central Plains High School in Claflin, KS to award the Go Green Oiler Team with a $500 Heart of Leadership Environmental Service Award.  The Heart of Leadership Environmental Service Award is given to a high school group for excellence in a community service project which is beneficial to the environment.  

Elle Nguyen and Sydnee Nelson present the Heart of Leadership Award (on Valentine's Day) to the Go Green Oiler Team of Central Plains High School

The Go Green Oiler Team is organizing an Alternative Activities to Save Energy Day in their community. They are inviting members of the Claflin community to come down to the park to participate in fun games for all ages. Along with the games, they will inform the community members about energy usage and ways to increase efficiency or decease usage. They are asking the people that are coming to shut off all electricity in their homes to see how much we can save during the three hour time period. The games and information session will bring together students, teachers, and community members of all ages. The purpose of this project is to make people aware of our current and future environmental issues. People of all ages should be concerned with this issue, therefore they will have a common interest, bringing all ages together.

“The Heart of Leadership Award Environmental Service Award is an excellent way to recognize eco-friendly servant leadership taking place at the high school level.  We were excited to present this award to the students of Central Plains High School and discuss the impact this award will have in their school and community.” – Jason Speegle, Director of Green Team Southwestern.  

We will be accepting submissions for next year's Heart of Leadership Award Environmental Service Award during the Fall 2012 semester.

"Waste"ing Away...

This semester, the Green Team at Southwestern has been learning a lot about what happens to trashed items when they get thrown into the garbage can or recycling bin. "Our society really takes trash for granted. Many people assume that items just magically disappear once we throw them into the nearest dumpster. I am trying to educate myself and our students that that is not the case," says Jason Speegle, Green Team Director.

So far this semester, Green Team students have toured the local Cowley County landfill and transfer station, the Winfield Recycling and Composting facilities and recently took part in a campus waste audit. At the transfer station, the group learned that most of stuff that we throw in the dumpster is hauled to a landfill in Harper County, 50 miles to the west of Winfield. Tons and tons of residential waste from homes and businesses in Cowley County is transferred to the Harper County landfill and buried in the ground. Unfortunately, very few of the items decompose in current landfill structures, due to the way they are designed. According to one of the workers at the Cowley County Landfill, even though the residential landfill closed 30 years ago, if someone took a shovel to the place where the trash was buried, you could "still read the newspapers" after all this time.

The group had the opportunity to witness a load of "trash" from a local retailer. As the truck was dumped, the students noticed never worn coats and never been used products mixed in with the other trash, much of which could have been recycled, composted or donated to charity. "I hope it was an eye-opener for the students. I certainly was for me," says Speegle.

Winfield is fortunate to have local composting and recycling programs. According to the EPA, only around 9,000 communities in the nation have local recycling programs and only 3,000 communities have composting programs. Winfield is blessed to have both. The Winfield composting program is free, both to dispose of compostable materials and residents can receive the compost and wood chips free of charge. The recycling program does have a cost to residents of Winfield, but it is a minimal $3 per month added on to monthly trash service fees. Kevin Neighbors, Sanitation Supervisor for the City of Winfield came and taught SC students about the programs offered by the City of Winfield and he then led a group of students on a tour of the compost and recycling facilities.

On February 27, several members of the Frito-Lay Green Team from the Frito-Lay plant in Topeka came to Southwestern and led the Green Team students through a campus waste audit. "If we are to minimize the amount of waste that our campus generates, then it is important to know what is being thrown away," says Speegle. The results of the waste audit are not yet calculated, but a large percentage of the garbage that was sifted through was materials that can already be recycled at Southwestern. "We need to do a better job of educating our campus community about what we can recycle and why it is important." Frito-Lay in Topeka has been able to achieve over 99% landfill diversion.

Teaching about Wind Energy

One of the missions of the Southwestern College Green Team is to teach others on campus and in the community the importance of living a sustainable way of life. One of the areas that Green Team students have learned about and desire to teach others is the growing importance of renewable energy sources. The installation of the college's first wind turbine is leading to opportunities to do just that.

On March 15th, the Green Team hosted 52 students from Mrs. Camille Richert's chemistry class from Winfield High School. The students are learning about alternative energy sources and they wanted to come to the college and see the turbine and learn about it. Green Team director, Jason Speegle taught the high school students about wind energy, some specifics about the Skystream turbine as well as the importance of sustainable living. Green Team students, Stephen Strecker and Daniel Van Sickle led the group through a presentation about solar energy and highlighted some of the things that the Green Team participates in on the Southwestern campus.

Also, on February 9th, the Green Team hosted a group of 13 students from Mr. Greg Carver's agriculture class from Winfield High School. The students in the class were learning about solar and wind energy and came over to the wind turbine site on the college campus. Green Team student, Stephen Strecker and director, Jason Speegle presented the students with information regarding wind and solar energy as well as information about how Southwestern installed its wind turbine in the summer of 2011. Some of the applications that were planned for the group were postponed due to the cold, rainy, cloudy nature of the Thursday afternoon.

According to Carver, some of the students in his class are "determined to build a [wind] generator" so the opportunity for them to see one up close was very valuable.

Green Teamers Teach Elementary Students about Composting

On Friday, February 10, several Green Team students spent the afternoon teaching about composting to the students at Country View Elementary School in Winfield. The principal of Country View invited the Green Team to come and present as part of a rotation of hands on activities for the students in grade Kindergarden through 4^th grade.

Green Team students Sydnee Nelson and Tendai Kwaramba developed a presentation focused on composting. They taught about the importance of recycling and that organic materials can be turned into compost which is good for gardens. Nelson and Kwaramba borrowed some compost from Alex Gottlob, local landscaping businessman and allowed the students to dig around in it and see what materials they could find.

The same 20 minute presentation was made to seven different groups of students throughout the afternoon. Green Team students Shea Wilson and Daniel Van Sickle also participated.