Carleton is featured in the “From the Field” section on pages 6–7, for a joint tour of Ferndale Market that was organized with St. Olaf; a longstanding partnership between Bon Appétit and Carleton’s classics department is featured on page 13; and on page 23, Bon Appétit’s work with Carleton’s sustainability team is featured in a story titled, “A Superpower Hiding in Plain Sight.”

Read the full Spring 2025 newsletter.

Meet Ava McQuain, a student at Carleton College who’s discovering her path while juggling the exciting — and sometimes challenging — adventures of college life. Thanks to her professor, who encouraged the class to join, Ava learned about Clean River Partners during a fun and impactful Watershed-Wide Cleanup event. That day opened her eyes to the amazing work happening to protect our environment and sparked her enthusiasm to dive deeper into local conservation efforts.

After that experience, a fellow student had the perfect suggestion: Ava should apply for a work-study position at Clean River Partners. She jumped at the chance! The role promised creativity and independence, which she highly values, and it was the perfect fit for her personal and professional interests.

In her role, Ava embarked on a project called “River Residents.” The goal was to create a social media campaign highlighting the diverse wildlife in the Cannon River Watershed. With her curiosity piqued, Ava dove into research, spending countless hours exploring the Minnesota Historical Society’s digital newspaper archive.

Read the full piece.

PHIUS (Passive House Institute, U.S.) is the leading passive building certification program in North America. The organization certifies housing projects that use design to minimize energy use. Requirements include airtightness, window comfort, and moisture and thermal designs that increase energy efficiency while reducing costs.

Carleton’s certified buildings are the five Lilac Hill townhouses, Neil House, and the Multicultural Center. The buildings are designed to use 69 percent less energy annually than similar buildings built to meet current energy code standards.

The energy efficient design includes exterior walls that are over a foot thick to minimize air infiltration and leakage. The Lilac Hill buildings also have 600 solar panels, which generate enough electricity to reach net zero by offsetting the annual energy usage of the buildings.

“This achievement confirms that the student housing buildings were built to the high standards set by PHIUS CORE certification, ensuring superior performance and quality construction,” Carleton partner Terra Construction wrote in a post about the project on Facebook.

The certified buildings were constructed during Phase I of the College’s Student Life and Housing Plan. Phases II through IV of the plan include construction of a new space for Student Health and Counseling (SHAC) and renovations of existing houses. The plan aims to create more equitable and community-focused residential and learning spaces. 

A major goal of Carleton’s Sustainable Futures framework is to reduce emissions by implementing sustainable operations. The passive housing certifications testify to the progress underway to reach that goal and increase energy efficiency across campus.

The innovative classification, developed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Council on Education (ACE), provides a comprehensive framework for assessing institutional efforts across curriculum, research, operations, community engagement, and workforce development, with an emphasis on preparing students for careers in sustainability fields. The Carnegie Foundation defines sustainability in higher education as a holistic, interdisciplinary approach that integrates environmental stewardship, resilience and adaptation, and societal well-being.

“With the recent launch of our new Sustainable Futures framework, Carleton is in a good position to participate in this innovative pilot program,” President Alison Byerly said. “We look forward to working with the Carnegie Foundation and ACE to pilot a classification system that will allow schools to better assess their progress in deepening their own sustainability efforts.”

The pilot program includes 21 institutions from across the United States and Puerto Rico, representing a wide variety of institutional types, including Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI), community colleges, rural campuses, research universities, and liberal arts colleges. These institutions will help refine the classification’s criteria and indicators of sustainability, ensuring inclusivity and accessibility for institutions of all types and sizes.

Participating institutions will engage in a rigorous self-assessment process to showcase achievements, set strategic goals for continuous improvement, and share best practices within the higher education sector. Insights from the pilot will inform the development of the official Sustainability Elective Classification, slated for launch in early 2026.

“This pilot program marks an important step forward in recognizing the essential role higher education plays in advancing sustainability,” said Timothy F.C. Knowles, president of the Carnegie Foundation. “The participating institutions are leading the way in addressing the global challenges of our time.”

“ACE is proud to partner with the Carnegie Foundation on this critical initiative,” said Ted Mitchell, president of ACE. “The Sustainability Elective Classification will help colleges and universities demonstrate their leadership and innovation in advancing sustainability across all aspects of their missions.” 

The Sustainability Elective Classification joins a distinguished suite of Carnegie Elective Classifications, including Community Engagement and Leadership for Public Purpose. This initiative highlights higher education’s transformative role in addressing societal challenges and creating sustainable futures.

For more information about Carleton’s involvement in the pilot program, visit the Carnegie Elective Classifications website.

About Carleton College

Consistently ranked among the nation’s top liberal arts institutions, Carleton is a private college of about 2,000 students located in Northfield, Minnesota, just 45 minutes south of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Nationally recognized as the nation’s top college for undergraduate teaching, Carleton is known for its academic rigor, intellectual curiosity, and sense of humor. Carleton offers 33 majors and 40 minors in the arts, humanities, natural sciences, mathematics, and social sciences. Learn more about Carleton on the College website.

About the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

The mission of the Carnegie Foundation is to catalyze transformational change in education so that every student has the opportunity to live a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life. Enacted by an act of Congress in 1906, the Foundation has a rich history of driving transformational change in education, including the establishment of TIAA-CREF, the GRE, and the Carnegie Classifications for Higher Education.

About the American Council on Education (ACE)

ACE unites and leads higher education institutions toward a shared vision for the future. With more than 1,600 member institutions, ACE drives solutions for today’s challenges, advances public policy, and shapes the higher education sector to serve a diverse student population. Learn more acenet.edu or follow ACE on X (formerly Twitter) @ACEducation.

Erica Helgerud ’20 is the news and social media manager for Carleton College.

Six total colleges and universities were recognized for their leadership and innovative approaches to addressing climate challenges across five categories — Decarbonization, Justice, Community, Workforce, and Research — alongside a Special Award for Climate Resiliency in Action. Carleton received the Climate Luminary Honor for Decarbonization.

“Carleton has long been a leader in renewable energy and sustainability, significantly reducing campus carbon emissions through pioneering initiatives, including district geothermal energy and on-campus wind turbines,” the official recognition reads. “The College’s new Sustainable Futures Framework integrates education, action, and environmental justice, providing a replicable model for decarbonization that prepares students as climate leaders.”

The Climate Luminary Honors celebrates member institutions of Second Nature’s Climate Leadership Network that exemplify bold and effective climate solutions, partnerships, and equitable climate action on their campuses and surrounding communities. Honorees will be recognized in February at the 2025 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., where they will share their impactful projects with peers from across the higher education sector.

“Second Nature is excited to announce the recipients of our inaugural Climate Luminary Honors initiative. The range of institutions selected and the amazing projects they have developed reflect the diverse strengths of the higher education sector to create impactful climate solutions,” said Tim Carter, president of Second Nature. “We congratulate the award recipients on their exemplary efforts to accelerate climate action in the sector. Through initiatives such as Climate Luminary Honors, Second Nature recognizes that holistic solutions can be accomplished regardless of institution type, geography, or cultural context.”

Learn more about the other Climate Luminary Honors recipients:

Justice — Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia

• Emory University is addressing food justice and climate resilience through local, sustainable food sourcing. Partnering with The Conservation Fund, Emory supports diverse new farmers in rural Georgia, strengthening local food systems, reducing emissions, and promoting equitable economic growth.

Community — University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

• The Appalachian Bridges to the Future project at the University of Pittsburgh brings together students, faculty, and community partners in Fayette County to advance sustainability, workforce development, and regional resilience, creating opportunities in underserved Appalachian communities.

Workforce — Central Community College in Hastings, Nebraska

• Central Community College is equipping students with skills to meet the growing demand for renewable energy careers. Through its energy technology program, the college trains future professionals to install, maintain, and repair wind and solar systems, fostering a sustainable workforce.

Research — University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

• The University of Toronto’s Project Leap will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 50% by the end of 2027 through campus-wide sustainability solutions. Part of the university’s climate-positive plan, this innovative project combines research, action, and engagement to drive measurable climate progress.

Special Award for Climate Resiliency in Action — Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina

• Warren Wilson College’s Center for Working Lands is a model for climate resilience, blending research and practice in land management. The Center integrates microgrid technology and electric equipment to enhance resilience while educating the next generation of climate leaders.

For more information on the Climate Luminary Honors initiative, visit Second Nature’s website.

About Second Nature

Second Nature is committed to accelerating climate action in and through higher education. By mobilizing a diverse array of higher education institutions to act on bold climate commitments, Second Nature scales campus climate initiatives and creates innovative climate solutions. Learn more at secondnature.org.

About Carleton College

Consistently ranked among the nation’s top liberal arts institutions, Carleton is a private college of about 2,000 students located in Northfield, Minnesota, just 45 minutes south of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Nationally recognized as the nation’s top college for undergraduate teaching, Carleton is known for its academic rigor, intellectual curiosity, and sense of humor. Carleton offers 33 majors and 40 minors in the arts, humanities, natural sciences, mathematics, and social sciences. Learn more about Carleton on the College website.

Cutter’s journey into environmental work began unexpectedly at Carleton, as they were not initially aware of Carleton’s Cowling Arboretum (aka the Arb) when they first visited. The Arb, however, would soon become a pivotal force in Cutter’s life. Cutter became deeply engaged with wildlife at Carleton as a student naturalist and researcher with Nancy Braker ’81, Puzak Family Director of the Cowling Arboretum and senior lecturer in biology. What started as a work-study opportunity soon evolved into a profound connection with the local prairie. 

“I fell in love with prairies pretty quickly,” said Cutter, reflecting on the transformative impact of hands-on experiences in the Arb. “I’ve kept working in grasslands ever since.”

This passion for grasslands led them to a year-long fellowship in Nebraska after graduating from Carleton, where they deepened their understanding of restoration ecology. 

“Plants are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Cutter. Beneath is a soil waiting to be discovered. This realization shaped their approach to the nuanced work of environmental restoration, particularly in sagebrush ecosystems. 

Cutter’s current role at Grand Teton National Park involves a wide range of responsibilities, from running a native seed program to managing revegetation and restoration projects. Despite the park’s appearance of untamed wilderness, considerable effort goes into restoring areas impacted by human activity and ensuring that these ecosystems function ecologically.

“People often don’t realize the behind-the-scenes work that goes into keeping a park healthy,” said Cutter. 

The mission of the park is to conserve the area for current and future generations. Cutter interprets the park’s mission as including conserving the genetics of the plants so that future generations can see the same lineage. To honor this, all the seeds used in restoration practices are native seeds collected by hand from the park. In this way, the genetic integrity of the park’s plant species are conserved.

Working in ecological restoration comes with its share of challenges, many of which are tied to the unpredictability of nature. This past year, for instance, an unexpected frost wiped out an entire generation of sunflowers. Cutter sees these challenges as opportunities for learning and adaptation, embracing the unpredictability that comes with working in dynamic environments.

“Every time I think I know what’s going to happen, the weather surprises me,” said Cutter. “We also get seasonal staff with varying levels of experience, making it hard to plan in advance.” Life in Grand Teton National Park always keeps Cutter on their toes. 

One of the highlights of their work has been seeing the rapid success of a specific restoration project. 

“The soil is really good there, and it looks phenomenal for a two-year-old restoration project,” said Cutter. “It is already flowering and going to seed, which is unusual. It’s nice to see the fruits of our labor so quickly.”

In addition to Cutter’s restoration work, they also find joy in educating others. Hosting volunteer days and introducing service groups to the species they are collecting is a way to share their passion and knowledge. Through this work, Cutter is building upon previous experience organizing volunteers while working as a student naturalist in the Arb. 

As Cutter continues their work in ecological restoration, they remain committed to paying it forward. 

“I benefited from mentors, and I’m happy to be a resource for others,” said Cutter.

Supported by the Humanities Center’s Trustee Humanities Endowed Student Research Fund, the research aims to produce high-quality handmade paper using unconventional fibers. The project represents a convergence of artistic practice and ecological awareness, with hopes to produce an exhibition that will coincide with the Arb’s upcoming 150th anniversary celebrations.

The Prairie Paper project involves taking plant fibers and transforming them into paper through a labor-intensive process of harvesting, cooking, and beating the fibers. Hoyer, an artist in her own right who has long incorporated papermaking into her practice, describes the effort as an exploration of the potential for locally available plant materials to serve as suitable paper pulp.

Last summer, Hoyer and her team zeroed in on cattails, an abundant local species in southeastern Minnesota. Experimenting with different methods to prepare the cattail fibers, the team learned how to balance the cooking time and fiber preparation to achieve the best possible results.

“We had to figure out how long to cook the fibers, and how much physical preparation, such as chopping or beating the fibers, is necessary for making pulp,” Hoyer said.

The first batch of cattail pulp, she recounted, was undercooked and didn’t break down properly. However, through trial and error — cutting the fibers into smaller pieces, adjusting the cooking process, and testing different pulp combinations — the team eventually produced a successful batch.

“We’re talking about 25+ hours of labor from three individuals just to see if an experiment works, and that’s with plants that we already harvested and dried,” said Hoyer.

One of the most exciting moments for Hoyer came when Chodera, after many long hours working with the cattail fibers, texted her with the good news: the fibers were working.

“That was a big moment,” Hoyer said, “because we weren’t sure it would work, and it’s such a labor-intensive process.”

Hoyer is also enthusiastic about the collaborative nature of the project. For the first time at Carleton, she had two student researchers assisting her, which proved invaluable not only in sharing the physical labor but also in sparking new ideas and methods. For example, Chodera introduced the use of a paper cutter instead of hand-ripping paper into small squares, which Hoyer said was a game changer for efficiency.

Francis, who has a background in pen and ink as well as watercolor, introduced new insights into how the paper could be modified to suit various artistic media. By experimenting with different sizing agents — substances added to paper to reduce its absorbency — the team produced paper more suited to mixed media work.

“Miah’s background directly impacted the quality of the paper we made,” Hoyer said.

Having two student researchers has not only lightened the workload for Hoyer but also fostered a sense of community and shared purpose. Hoyer described how Chodera and Francis took shifts boiling cattail fibers during the hottest weeks of the summer, ensuring that the laborious process didn’t overwhelm either student.

The mutual learning between Hoyer and her student assistants was one of the most rewarding aspects of the project for her.

“To see how we collectively landed on exciting discoveries that I wouldn’t have been able to achieve by myself — it’s really invigorating for my studio practice,” Hoyer said.

Hoyer is quick to acknowledge the many resources the Carleton community has provided to make Prairie Paper a reality. From funding provided by the Humanities Center to the equipment and materials made available by the Department of Art and Art History, the project has benefited from the College’s robust support system. Furthermore, the expertise of Nancy Braker ’81, Puzak Family Director of the Cowling Arboretum and senior lecturer in biology, was instrumental in helping the team identify plants that might be suitable for future papermaking experiments at Carleton.

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Luisa Neubauer and Helena Marschall, two of Germany’s leading climate activists, spoke to an audience of Carleton students, staff, and faculty for the event. They also met with various groups during their visit: German students at a special German lunch table, students who work with Carleton’s Sustainability Office and the Carleton Student Organic Farm, and student activists living in the Wellstone House of Organizing and Activism (WHOA) on campus.

“Each event was a chance to learn from each other,” said Kiley Kost, lecturer in German and one of the main organizers of the visit. “Luisa and Helena are the experts on climate activism, but they were also eager to hear from young students in the U.S. about how they engage in politics and how they think about climate change.”

During the talk on October 10, Neubauer discussed her journey to becoming an activist for climate change. Initially, she had been studying geography at university. She described the fascination she felt in her studies and discussions she would have in the classroom and out in the field. She also mentioned that learning about climate change was a less fun aspect of her university career.

“Increasingly, from one semester to the next, I got this feeling that there was something unjust about me having to sit down, learning of [climate change],” Neubauer said. “I felt they could have mentioned, once in a while, what to do about these things.”

She then showed a line graph, spanning the last 100 to 1,000 years, and the trajectory of climate change.

“I got angry about this,” Neubauer said. “We would walk down to lunch and pretend that what we learned in the classroom didn’t exist. This was something we would learn theoretically but practically wouldn’t have in our lives.”

She continued, “I got this feeling of disrespect toward us young people, that they would make us learn stuff that would impact our entire lives without that little side note of how to deal with it — emotionally, critically, socially.”

At that point as a young student, Neubauer described attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference and looking for the practical solution, for “the man in the suit who was going to solve this problem; as you can imagine,” Neubauer said, “he didn’t exist.”

However, it was at this conference that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg spoke, and introduced the concept of school strikes, soon dubbed the Fridays for Future movement. This “shook something” in her, Neubauer said. She recalled bringing school strikes to Germany, but feeling herself unable to participate in them, she just wrote about it; she soon realized, though, she would have to actually do it.

“I hated the idea of organizing,” she said. “That was my first encounter with [the edge of] my comfort zone.”

Neubauer described the initial protests as small, somewhat awkward, and uncertain, as many participants — including herself — didn’t know what to do.

“It was everything but revolution, but it didn’t matter, because it was something,” Neubauer said.

Fridays for Future quickly built momentum, and Neubauer said that they found joy in the work.

“Something that’s really important and good doesn’t always feel important and good — often it feels tiny and insignificant,” she said. For this reason, she explained, it is important to tell people, like Carleton students, about those initial, awkward moments.

Marschall — who was organizing Fridays for Future strikes in Frankfurt, Germany at the same time as Neubauer’s strikes in Berlin — concurred with Neubauer on this. She added that she wanted the audience to take away two lessons from their story.

The first one: “Big things start small.”

“When you tell it now, it’s like, ‘of course!’” Marschall said. “But we did not know that then. We were so scared, so lost, and so bad at what we did… We didn’t know we were supposed to yell things so we just kind of walked around. It did not feel like the beginning of something great or the beginning of something big.”

Marschall described the kind of mythic idea that often surrounds activism, and how common it is to believe that there is someone else better equipped to make a difference than oneself. However, Marschall counters this with her second lesson: “There is no one better equipped than us in that moment.”

“If you are unsatisfied with the status quo, and you want to change something, then that is everything you need,” Marschall said. “That is what has allowed this movement to become so big and for us to do climate strikes in hundreds of cities at once.”

With the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Marschall and Neubauer’s Fridays for Future strikes and protests were put on hold. They both described this as difficult, as the movement had built up a lot of momentum, leading into critical European elections.

“Our whole thing was bringing masses of people onto the streets,” Marschall said. “Suddenly that was impossible, unsafe, and irresponsible.”

Neubauer explained that what they learned during the height of the pandemic was “activism is often portrayed as charity for the climate or nature or the environment. But most of all, what we found is that it is actually an investment in ourselves and our own capacity and resilience.”

“What gave us the most strength and inspiration and mental stability during the pandemic,” Neubauer continued, “was that we knew we have been standing up against one crisis, so we know what it takes to stand up in another… We knew the key thing: community.”

Neubauer described setting up programs, education, digital engagement, and street murals while their strikes and protests were paused. It takes effort to face crises, she said, but especially in today’s digital world, where the news is so easily accessed, “it takes almost as much effort to ignore it, to push it away, to look away, rather than to rise up with it.”

As a recent example of how their activism work has expanded, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Marschall and Neubauer recalled the peace protests being easier to organize now because of all the work they had done before.

For Kost, a key takeaway from their visit is that activism and demonstrations have the power to shift social norms and contexts, which is exactly what the Fridays for Future movement did in Germany.

“We can question what is considered normal in terms of fossil fuel usage and instead establish new norms centering on renewable energies and making decisions that will have a positive impact in the future,” Kost said. “Another important detail that Helena and Luisa emphasized is that everyone has the right and the power to demand action against climate change, no matter their fossil fuel consumption. The idea that you need to already be living the most perfectly sustainable life in order to demand policy change only prevents people from speaking up. We are all implicated in a messy, dirty system, and that’s exactly why we need to show up and push for change.”

Marschall and Neubauer concluded their talk with the argument that it is the collective process of activism, not just one court ruling or one specific successful protest, that makes change happen.

“It’s showing up,” Marschall said, “even when we think we might fail — especially then.”

Support from the Minnesota Historical Society will allow Braker and a team of contractors to build on research conducted during a prior MHS grant and complete the book by June 2026, in time for the Arb’s centennial celebration during the 2026–27 academic year. Carleton’s 800-acre arboretum is the oldest in Minnesota and the second-oldest in the Midwest. 

The Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Grants program — also known as Legacy Grants — is a competitive process created to provide financial support for projects focused on preserving Minnesota’s history and culture. This state-funded program is made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund using sales tax revenue resulting from the Clean Water, Land, and Legacy amendment created through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008.

Read on the Carleton Grants Office page.

Emily Fairfax ’14 gave the opening address at the conference, presenting on her groundbreaking research showing the ways beaver complexes mitigate wildfire damage and thus are crucial in building resilience to climate change. Ken Tape ’99 presented on his research and founding of the Arctic Beaver Observation Network — an organization composed of research scientists, Indigenous observers, and land managers who are working to understand the scale and implications of beaver colonization of the Arctic. 

Current students Caitlin McWilliams ’25 and Jonah Docter-Loeb ’25 — supported with funding from Carleton’s fellowship office and Career Center — facilitated a panel they organized about beavers on college campuses. Arb director Nancy Braker ’81 joined them on stage to speak about her experience managing Carleton’s beavers and their educational potential, alongside Andrea Knutson (Oakland University) and Alexis Mychajliw (Middlebury College). Together, they’re launching a Beavers in Higher Education working group for students, professors, and other campus community members interested in campus beaver coexistence efforts, research, or organizing a Beaver Festival! If you’re interested in helping out or know of other campuses with beavers, fill out the interest form.

Already a leader in sustainability in the higher education landscape, Carleton has demonstrated a commitment to climate action through significant investments in renewable energy and campus–community collaboration, as well as divestment from fossil fuels. The first college in the U.S. to install a utility-grade wind turbine (in 2004, adding a second in 2011), Carleton has reduced its direct operational and purchased fossil energy needs by 54% and 72%, respectively, since 2008 — beyond most institutions that have proclaimed carbon neutrality, which often relies on purchased offsets and renewable energy credits.

“Sustainable Futures is an ambitious, forward-thinking strategy that expands our long-standing efforts to reduce emissions, and to make Carleton a model for the integration of environmental education and sustainable practice,” President Alison Byerly said. “Carleton has been a nationally recognized leader in sustainability for many years, and is now forging a new path grounded in action, not offsets, to educate the next generation of citizens and leaders.”

The College achieved remarkable progress with its 2011 Climate Action Plan, the predecessor to Sustainable Futures that prioritized integrating sustainability into Carleton’s facilities and utility planning — including the construction of Minnesota’s first geothermal district energy system (in 2017), a LEED Platinum-certified integrated science complex (in 2019), and the first group of PHIUS-certified student housing buildings in the U.S. (in 2024) — and fostering a culture of operational sustainability. 

That 2011 Climate Action Plan included a goal for the College to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 — a goal that was later advanced to 2025 — yet Sustainable Futures shifts away from this pursuit. 

“Many leaders in climate action are moving away from focusing primarily on institutional carbon neutrality, as such goals typically rely on some proportion of carbon offsets, a strategy viewed with increasing skepticism from experts,” Byerly said. “Carleton will instead invest in a broad and ambitious array of solutions that support mitigation, adaptation, and environmental justice both on campus and in the community.” 

While Carleton still aims to pursue the elimination of natural gas and greening the College’s electricity, moving away from carbon neutrality — which would have required purchasing carbon offsets — allows the College to pursue a broader and more ambitious suite of solutions that support mitigation, adaptation, and environmental justice with a scope of action not just on Carleton’s campus. Instead of narrowly focusing on reducing historically measured campus emissions, as is common in pursuing carbon neutrality, Carleton will instead invest its resources into educating climate leaders, measuring and addressing new emissions, and supporting broader transformation through work with community partners and those most impacted by the climate crisis.

A new Center for Sustainable Futures is planned to serve as a nexus for interdisciplinary and solutions-focused learning and collaboration, bringing campus leaders and learners together to deepen experiential learning while sharing their best thinking with one another, and with the nearby community.

Students, faculty, and staff have a long and successful history in connecting education to action and supporting complementary cultural change at Carleton, and the new center will support these efforts. Collaborative initiatives — such as the Food Recovery Network, Lighten Up, Empty Bowls, and Carleton’s support for the City of Northfield’s Climate Action Plan — provide students with high-impact experiences and apply the expertise on campus to the broader interests and needs of the community around Carleton.

“Even with these past successes, the Carleton community has felt urgency not only to continue, but to deepen the College’s response,” said Associate Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies Aaron Swoboda ’01, who co-led the working group that helped to develop the framework alongside Director of Sustainability Sarah Fortner. “Sustainable Futures places students and their education and experiences at the center of Carleton’s future.” 

“This is about equipping faculty, staff, and students with the tools they need to unite and address real-world challenges, and to connect across academic and applied expertise to catalyze change,” Fortner added. “The solution to the climate crisis is not only about what we do as individuals or within organizations, but how we collaborate locally and through civic engagement for resilience and justice.”

About Carleton College

Consistently ranked among the nation’s top liberal arts institutions, Carleton is a private college of about 2,000 students located in Northfield, Minnesota, just 45 minutes south of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Nationally recognized as the nation’s top college for undergraduate teaching, Carleton is known for its academic rigor, intellectual curiosity, and sense of humor. Carleton offers 33 majors and 40 minors in the arts, humanities, natural sciences, mathematics, and social sciences. Learn more about Carleton on the College website.

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The Newman Civic Fellowship is a yearlong program that recognizes students who stand out for their leadership potential and commitment to creating positive change in their communities. The fellowship is named for the late Frank Newman, one of Campus Compact’s founders, who was a tireless advocate for civic engagement in higher education. In the spirit of Dr. Newman’s leadership, each fellow is nominated by their campus president or chancellor, who is invited to select one exemplary community-committed student from their campus each year. 

Carleton president Alison Byerly praised the critical lens and thoughtful questions Alvarez brings to her work at the Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE). 

“Alyssa has exercised tremendous leadership both on campus and in the local community to promote engagement with environmental justice issues,” wrote Byerly. “This work has included leading the College’s collaboration with Sharing Our Roots, a nonprofit regenerative agriculture organization; co-leading the HOME program, an affordable housing initiative advocating for fair housing policies in Carleton’s surrounding county; and learning to use academic skills to address racial disparities through Academic Civic Engagement courses and public scholarship work with faculty.”

Through the Newman fellowship, Campus Compact provides students with learning and networking opportunities that help nurture their development as civic leaders. Programming emphasizes personal, professional, and civic growth that can empower them to collaborate effectively across disciplines and create large-scale positive change. The cornerstone of the fellowship is the Annual Convening of Newman Civic Fellows, which offers intensive in-person skill-building and networking over three days. The program also provides fellows with pathways to apply for exclusive opportunities, including mini-grants to help fund community projects, scholarships, and post-graduate opportunities.

“We are honored to recognize such an outstanding group of community-committed students,” said Campus Compact president Bobbie Laur. “One of the best parts of the Newman Civic Fellowships is the richness of students’ perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds — and how these varied stories all led to their passionate engagement with the social, political, and environmental issues impacting our world. These students will be the catalysts for change on many levels, and we are privileged to help empower them to create that change.”

About Campus Compact

Campus Compact is a national coalition of colleges and universities committed to the public purposes of higher education. Campus Compact supports institutions in fulfilling their public purposes by deepening their ability to improve community life and to educate students for civic and social responsibility. As the largest national higher education association dedicated solely to campus-based civic engagement, Campus Compact provides professional development to administrators and faculty to enable them to engage effectively, facilitate national partnerships connecting campuses with key issues in their local communities, build pilot programs to test and refine promising models in engaged teaching and scholarship, celebrate and cultivate student civic leadership, and convene higher education institutions and partners beyond higher education to share knowledge and develop collective capacity.

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