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Environment

Cooking Up the Future

Cooking Up the Future seeks to alleviate some of the issues surrounding social mobility in Greenville. Greenville County is ranked twenty-fourth out of all the counties in the country for difficulty in terms of social mobility. The group identified an organization effecting important community change, Mill Village Farms, as a partner for the capstone project. Mill Village Farms has a paid summer internship program for high school students; the program is focused on students who come from low-income backgrounds.

Embrace SC

Embrace SC has created a website that can be utilized as a tool for companies who are targeting and recruiting diverse candidates to the Midlands. Mindful of the negative perception that many people still have of South Carolina, the group’s website provides links to organizations, activities and relevant resources in the Midlands that cater to diverse individuals in the following categories:

Explorers

The Explorers aim to spread an understanding of and appreciation for diversity to students. The Waccamaw River is essentially the only separation between the attendance regions for St. James and Conway High Schools, but students from these two high schools generally have very different day-to-day experiences, mainly because of disparate backgrounds. The Explorers aim to bridge this gap, partnering with such organizations as Coastal Carolina Community College, in understanding between students from these two schools by bringing them together through education.

No Trash Simply Recycle

The care of the environment is not a racial or gender problem. It is our problem because we all live in this beautiful planet called Earth. However, its beauty is declining because of our trash. There is one very simple way for us all to help resolve the issue – recycling. Our current methods of disposing of trash have become a major hazard. Landfills, which were simply designed to be a mound or large hole of trash that is covered, are very well on its way to meeting its capacity. Resources for expansion are diminishing.

Over the Horizon

Over the Horizon group members aimed to teach the importance of cultural diversity through an abstract way: understanding biodiversity. Taking students from two culturally diverse high schools in the Lowcountry, group members led these students on an exploration of Bulls Island, a wildlife refuge of Cape Romain. Through an excursion into the wild, these students learned how the interdependence of plant and animal life could relate to the interdependence of the diverse cultures and heritages of the Lowcountry. 

Poinsett People

The Poinsett People’s Team objective was to devise a project which would provide young people of middle school age from very low income backgrounds with the opportunities, skills and forum/voice to positively influence their community in a lasting and impactful manner.

Team Homegrown

Gardens of Change was started to create an opportunity to help improve the health and well-being of people who live in food deserts across South Carolina. In partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of the Midlands the first Garden of Change was planted in Columbia SC in the Spring of 2015 in hopes of expanding the number of gardens in South Carolina to all of the Community Centers and Schools where the Boys & Girls Club of the Midlands operates programs.

Tool Cultivators

Project Name: Community Toolshed

Project Concept: Tool Library in partnership with Gardening for Good

Problem: Need for gardening tools for volunteer days and for community members wanting to start and maintain community gardens. There are about 80 known community gardens in Greenville County.

Solution: A tool library located in Greenville County that would house tools that can be checked out and borrowed.

Trailblazers

The Mary Black Rail Trail is a multi- use trail that runs through Spartanburg County. The group plans to utilize the Mary Black Rail Trail in order to build community and celebrate diversity. The goal is to celebrate some of the positive things that are already happening in Spartanburg – successes, history and where the community is going. Thirty percent of people who use the Rail Trail are minorities. The focus will be on this area because the trail brings people of different backgrounds together.