The home of Wofford’s Community Sustainability Program
In 2015, Wofford announced the Milliken Sustainability Initiative, a program whose goal is to deepen the college’s relationship with the Spartanburg communities of the Northside and Glendale through collaboration with members of these neighborhoods. As a product of this initiative, the college launched the Community Sustainability Program which focuses on both environmental and community sustainability.
The Milliken House was built as a part of this initiative. The new off-campus residence hall is home to a cohort of 12 students and the Community Sustainability Program Manager, Matthew Newton ‘21. Students in the cohort will engage in community-based learning and work alongside community members to develop various projects.
Newton works with community partners to create projects for community engagement, while working with the students to deepen their understanding of equitable and sustainable community development. Newton said that one of the main goals of the program is to “tear down some of what people have described as the Wofford bubble and to make Wofford a place that is more accessible, especially to local communities.”
Matilda Redfern ‘23 is one of the students in this cohort. “I became interested in this program because I have been involved in numerous projects that have allowed me to get off campus and see what the Spartanburg community has to offer,” said Redfern.
As part of the program, the students living in the Milliken House are required to take courses at Wofford that focus on community and environmental sustainability. For the fall semester, they had the option of taking ANTH 305 Sustainable Communities, taught by Alysa Handelsman, or ENVS 313 Sustainable Food Systems, taught by Amy Telligman.
One of the projects that Redfern said especially inspired her to be a part of the Community Sustainability Program is the work that she has done with the Back of the College Project. “I have spent a lot of time working on the Back of the College project” said Redfern “and when the college expanded into the neighborhood, the residents were never offered a seat at the table where their ideas could be heard and valued.”
Redfern said that she chose to take Sustainable Communities because it “aims to focus on community-led projects where residents are leading these new improvement projects and have multiple seats at the table.”
She is especially excited to learn more about the Northside community while living within it, as well as through collaborating with the Northside Development Group and the Northside Voyagers. Both Redfern and Newton hope that this project will help break the “Wofford bubble” and create community-led projects.
The Community Sustainability Program will have a table at the Mungo Exchange Block Party on September 23. The event taking place on Evins Street from 5pm-6:30pm will provide students with the opportunity to interact with and learn about the various offices within the Mungo Exchange. Newton encourages students to stop by for food and games, as well as to learn more about the program and ways to get involved.
