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News and Event Releases > Greenovation: Millsaps and Midtown Collaborate for Summer Learning and Fun

Greenovation: Millsaps and Midtown Collaborate for Summer Learning and Fun

This summer 1 Campus 1 Community designed and implemented a week-long Greenovation program for children and youth living in the Midtown neighborhood just west of the College.

Greenovation focused on environmental sustainability and was a first for the Midtown summer program known as Project Innovation, which provides summer enrichment for third through eighth graders living in the Midtown neighborhood.

In developing Greenovation, Bolton Kirchner, a 2010 Millsaps alum and a 1C1C post-baccalaureate fellow, drew on his experiences from his self-designed Environmental Studies major at Millsaps and from his time as a summer intern with the Eco-Stewards program in West Virginia. 

Kirchner began his work as a 1C1C Fellow in June and will continue for a year as he serves as Project Coordinator for Environmental and Wellness Initiatives, building the capacity of Millsaps students to engage in long-term partnerships of mutual transformation with the Midtown and public school K-12 communities.

Each day of Greenovation featured a different theme for student learning and creativity.

Monday focused on neighborhood as habitat. The students made personal maps of their neighborhood and learned about the importance of supporting their community. Each student included their home and the Project Innovation site, and then they chose other favorite places to add to their maps. Many of them even included Millsaps on their map.

The 3 R's - reduce, reuse, recycle - were Tuesday's focus. Students divided into teams, chose a recyclable object, and used their imagination to make the object into a new usable object. Did you know an empty milk jug makes a great bird feeder?

Wednesday continued the theme of repurposing objects as students transformed used water bottles into colorful flowers for a public art project that now decorates the fence around their play field and the Midtown Community Garden.

On Thursday, students got their hands dirty while learning in the community garden. They toured rows of diverse plants, composted debris, and harvested watermelon and honeydew melon they had planted earlier in the summer.

If smiles and smacks were any indication, the best part of Greenovation was eating the watermelon and honeydew as a fresh and delicious lunch time dessert. The students were amazed at how tiny seeds they had planted earlier in the year had grown into huge melons for them to enjoy.

By: Bolton Kirchner, 1C1C Fellow