Sustainability Scholars Program FAQ

The Goal

The Sustainability Literacy Scholars Program (SLSP) exemplifies the College’s commitment to sustainability literacy and its belief in the enhancement of student learning through education, expression, and empowerment.

Sustainability is defined as the integration of social, economic, and environmental systems in ways that allow for individual, institutional, community, regional, and planetary resilience. To be sustainability literate one has the knowledge and skills to advocate for resilient social, economic, and environmental systems.

Guided by a paradigm of resilience and building upon a holistic foundation of environmental, economic, and social sustainability literacy, the SLSP will help prepare students to be forceful advocates for, and innovative future leaders towards, a sustainable existence.

The goal of the SLSP is to equip students and their respective staff/community/faculty mentors with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to promote sustainability literacy in all forms. This will be accomplished by:

increasing sustainability literacy through coursework, volunteer experiences, and leadership events
engaging in real-world sustainability literacy focused experience
cultivating leadership skills, as well as critical and creative thinking
building systems thinking competencies and the understanding of how these relate to resiliency
inspiring commitment and involvement in the College of Charleston becoming a sustainability literate community.

Upon successful completion of the SLSP, students will possess the ability to take sustainability literacy forward in their personal and professional lives, as well as future communities of habitation.

What are the Requirements?

We want to be here for you and help guide you through the process of becoming a resilient advocate on campus.

To assist your journey we have created a run through of all the necessary requirements in becoming and maintaining your position as Sustainability Scholar at the College of Charleston.

Please note to officially graduate as a scholar that all materials and artifacts outlined in the scholars guiding document that are required for completing the program must be submitted to the OAKS SLSP page by the last day of exams for the semester in which you are graduating.

Courses

Students must complete at least 9 credit hours total of Sustainability Focused (SF) or Sustainability Related (SR) courses :

Classes must include one of each of the following:

1 SF or SR class on Economics
1 SF or SR class on Society/Equity
1 SF or SR class on Environment

This means that you need three classes with 3 credit hours of SF or SR courses.

Don't know what classes are offered?

Click here for to check them out!

Academic Advising

Upon entering the SLSP, students will be assigned a SLSP mentor. Students are required to meet at least once per semester with their mentor in order to track their progress throughout the program. Mentors should act as a resource to students to develop an explore various paths through Sustainability Literacy. They should also act as an advisor in the development and implementation of volunteer projects as well as portfolio projects.

List of Potential Advisors

Application

Students will be required to apply to the SLSP via the online application.

Any work submitted in order to apply to the SLS program should be kept in a digital file and saved as a word document. Once accepted into the program, students will be asked to upload their application essay responses to their sustainability portfolio.