Change Projects | Education

All degree students in the Center for Creative Change conduct a capstone change project in an organization or community. Change projects enable students to integrate ideas studied in the classroom with real-world experiences of social change.

These student change projects cover a range of issues and approach them in many different ways. Here are examples of student projects on the role of education and learning in social change.

Coalition to Overcome Obesity and Diabetes

Marilyn Watkins (Organizational Psychology*) built a grass-roots coalition of individuals, organizations and communities who are united to reduce the incidence of obesity and diabetes, especially among children. She leveraged connections with children's organizations to bridge communities and educate about the effects of high- fructose corn syrup.

Distance Learning in Southwest Oregon

The University Center in southwest Oregon coordinates distance learning opportunities provided by local universities and colleges. John Anderson (Management*) worked with faculty, staff and community leaders to increase community awareness of this organization's programs.

Experiential Environmental Education at Nathan Hale High School

Wendy Bellows (Environment and Community) led an experiential environmental education program at Nathan Hale High School in Seattle. The program included restoring a local creek and learning about the creek's ecosystem. It demonstrated students' ability to affect positive change in the environment and provided them with real-life experiences to complement their classroom learning.

Faculty Perspectives on Collaborative Learning in Eastern Washington

Aaron Brown (Organizational Psychology*) interviewed Eastern Washington University faculty about the benefits and challenges of collaborative learning. His work also looked at ways of more fully integrating this form of pedagogy into higher education.

Education and Corporate Sustainability

Molly Deas (Environment and Community) explored the role of education to motivate those who work in a corporation to be more environmentally sustainable. She created a workshop on environmental sustainability for employees and studied their practices and behavior before and after taking the workshop. Her work provides an excellent model that could be used to teach sustainable practices in the corporate world.

Sustainability Education: A Multicultural Approach

Christina Dollhausen (Environment and Community) designed, implemented and evaluated a new education for sustainability program in a multicultural high school in Santa Fe, NM. Her work demonstrated practical ways of incorporating multiculturalism in the classroom and how to create a sustainability curriculum relevant for a diverse student audience.

Training Youth for Peace

Jean Lee (Management*) and Patricia Anne Davis (Whole Systems Design) collaborated to train volunteer middle and high school students in peace-making. They used a training program adapted from the four phases of the Navajo "blessing way" ceremony that encourages healthy communication and relationship life skills.

Intergenerational Learners Build Sustainable Community

Sharon Massey (Whole Systems Design) worked with a group of home-school children and their parents to design a participatory learning model that integrated community projects and environmental stewardship. She achieved this by creating an educational vision and specific learning activities that reflect relationships within education, sustainability and community.

Children Creating Change in School

Amy McNulty (Environment and Community) worked with Calvary Chapel Christian School in California to create an environmental club. The club's students designed and implemented a recycling program and led energy-conservation efforts on campus. The club's success was largely a result of leadership roles assumed by the students themselves.

Learning to Learn

Rose Olson (Whole Systems Design) studied how students with learning disabilities learn in school. Using the lens of systemic thinking, she designed and implemented a pilot program for high school students called "The Mind That's Mine."

Education for Sustainability: Lake Superior Pathfinders

Steve Sandstrom (Environment and Community) developed and assessed an unusual program to provide high school students with opportunities to investigate environmental issues that impact Lake Superior. The program taught students how to understand and take action on environmental issues in their own communities.

Learning Teams: Can They Influence Change at a Community College?

Robert Sullivan (Management*) formed a learning team at South Seattle Community College. He explored how the learning team could use systemic thinking to address recurring problems at the college and how the team could contribute to organizational learning and change.

*In 2010, the name of the Management program changed into "Management and Leadership" and the Organizational Psychology program into "Organizational Development."