A Student-Centered Approach
The first five Sustainability Fellows graduated in 2020, and their twoyear
capstone projects are already making an impact. One student, for
example, created a tree map of the HB campus to assist in planning tree
care and future plantings. A robotics-loving student used biomimicry (that
is, human builders copying successful features from the natural world) to try
to reproduce the protective effect that tree canopies have in stormwater
management. “The learning along the way is incredible,” says McMillan.
Currently, one Fellowship student is using her capstone project to
develop the beginnings of a climate action plan for Hathaway Brown, which
McMillan says has been a complex and exciting effort for the student.
“It’s really rare for a student to get this level of insight into how an
institution works and to be thinking about all of the different tensions and
pulls that administrators and trustees are trying to navigate,” says McMillan.
“She’s getting to hear all those conversations and then infuse her own
insights from the student body – how to gauge student buy-in and student
interest in this.”
A diploma designation and its capstone project aren’t the only way to
participate in the sustainability action. Senior Grace Zhang, co-president of
the school’s Green Team club, has leapt into these other opportunities.
“I had always wanted to do something to help prevent climate change, but
I really started getting involved because I kind of had an epiphany one day.
I can’t always just wait for someone to do this. I have to take action myself.”
COVID-19 restrictions have made gathering the Green Team more
difficult this past year, since projects have typically revolved around
in-person schoolwide initiatives. But, Zhang says, the Team has found
pandemic-friendly ways to connect HB students with the environment,
including leading socially distant walks and hikes, engaging in community
cleanup efforts, and planting native flowers in the school’s bird sanctuary.
As students are now beginning to come back in person, the Green
Team is refocusing on campus efforts, like decreasing food waste at school
and “educating people in the HB community about how they can be more
sustainable with their eating habits,” she says.
This effort pairs perfectly with junior Kaila Morris’s Sustainability
Fellowship capstone project, which focuses on sustainability practices in
the school’s student-run café, the HathCaff. Originally conceived by some
Business and Finance students at HB, students fill all company positions
from the executive team to the baristas.
For her two-year project, Morris is creating a Director of Sustainability
position for the company. For this first year, with the café closed and school
having been remote for much of the time, Morris has been focusing on
research and drafting a statement of HathCaff’s sustainability practices,
such as composting guidelines. Next school year, implementation will begin.
Shaker and Beyond
HB’s action on sustainability extends
beyond campus to Shaker Heights
and the surrounding region. As
reported in Shaker Life’s fall 2020
issue, Hathaway Brown students
regularly join teens from Shaker
Heights High School, Laurel School,
and University School to advise the
City’s Sustainability Committee,
most recently on what steps the
City needs to take to secure LEED
certification (Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design). During
the pandemic, Shaker Youth LEEDS
continues to meet virtually and
undertake research to assist the City.
Other students, also outside
of school hours, have become
involved with the Cleveland chapter
of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL),
a nonpartisan organization that
lobbies for federal policy to address
climate change. Zhang and other
students have participated in the
organization’s summer program,
and other HB students attend local
meetings and manage the chapter’s
Instagram account. They bring a
valuable student perspective to the
group, says McMillan, who volunteers
her own time to head the Cleveland
chapter of CCL.
With McMillan’s longstanding
dedication to environmentalism
and her roots as a student at HB,
her return to become the Director
of Sustainability might seem like a
foregone conclusion. But it nearly
didn’t happen. When McMillan
was living in New Hampshire
and searching for a new job in
sustainability education, her search
was national. But it just so happened
that the perfect job in sustainability
drew her back to her alma mater and
Cleveland. “This work brings people
to our region,”she says. SL
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