The college’s Sustainability Institute earned a 2018 Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award in April for its significant contributions in environmental and conservation leadership.

As a three-year pilot program, the Sustainability Institute offered a boot-camp style professional development program to help undergraduate students transition into workplace-ready professionals. Open to students from all majors, the intense, two-week program utilized employer challenges with industry experts to teach students how to solve problems and communicate effectively with a “sustainability lens.” Students who completed the training were eligible for summer and semester-based internships with partner organizations. A total of 132 students representing more than 60 different majors have completed the training, with more than half securing an internship through the institute.

Institute Director Angie De Soto accepted the program’s bronze medal at the Environment Virginia Symposium in Lexington. “We are honored to be recognized at the state level for this unique approach. I am so proud of our students and thrilled to see the impacts they are already making in the workplace,” she said.

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