SUSTAINABILITY Newsletter
Winter 2026
15 Students. 15+ Majors. One Shared Commitment to Community Resilience
This year’s inaugural Community Resilience and Leadership Student Fellows (CRL) Program cohort brings together 15 students representing more than 15 majors across campus. These outstanding students are ready to apply their learning in meaningful partnership with our region. Beginning this spring, Fellows will be paired with community partners to collaborate on real-world projects designed to strengthen resilience in our region.
The CRL Program is SOU’s flagship, community-engaged learning experience for students who want to turn their passions into real-world impact. Through hands-on projects, field-based learning, cohort gatherings and deep partnerships with local organizations, CRL invites students to work on the complex, urgent challenges facing our communities and be part of creating thoughtful solutions. Fellows receive stipends for their participation in the program that values their time and leadership and the educational opportunity, allowing students to focus fully on their projects.
Stay tuned as we announce our first cohort and share what projects they are working on in the months ahead.
Tree Campus
Southern Oregon University is once again a Tree Campus! SOU earned this designation through The Arbor Day Foundation, which is a global nonprofit organization that inspires institutions and people to celebrate trees. Tree Campus for Higher Education is a national recognition program from The Arbor Day Foundation that helps higher education institutions plant, nurture, and celebrate trees on campus.
This is SOU’s 11th year of achieving Tree Campus designation! SOU achieved this designation by fulfilling the programs’ five standards for higher education institutions. SOU executes forest management on campus by: maintaining a tree committee, developing a campus tree care plan, dedicating annual expenditures for tree care, hosting an Arbor Day observance, and having student service learning projects focusing on trees and forestry
Highlights from our past year include forty volunteer hours to plant trees at The SOU Farm, our annual Arbor Day event where we work with the SOU Grounds team on a campus project, multiple academic courses and projects involving forestry, and plenty of volunteering education and events at the farm.
Be on the lookout for more information regarding our Spring 2026 Arbor Day celebration and event!
Website Refresh
The SOU Sustainability team has been hard at work this winter refreshing our website prior to the migration over to the main SOU website later this year.
Each page has a new look and is more user-friendly for those looking for any information and updates regarding campus sustainability. We will continue to update the page as sustainability efforts, collaborations, events, and news occur.
Please check it out and see what we have been working on!
Don’t forget to check out our Instagram account too!
Upcoming Events
Mentorship Speaker Series, April 7th in the Rogue River Room 4:00 PM
We’re excited to welcome Amy Bowers Cordalis, Yurok tribal member, attorney, mother, fisherwoman, and Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation Group, as our speaker in April for the Mentorship Speaker Series.
Amy’s talk will discuss her work on Indigenous rights, environmental stewardship, and community-led conservation, including her leadership in the historic removal of the Klamath River dams.
For further information about Amy, and the event please click here
While crops rest in winter, student farm employees at The Farm at SOU are tackling personal research projects that build research and leadership skills. Each student collaborates with farm leadership to develop assessments, manuals, and guides on topics ranging from agricultural techniques to harvest protocols to pest management.
Why dedicate an entire term to these projects? What makes them so valuable for student development? Even when winter slows outdoor operations, continual professional development is an important aspect of the undergraduate experience. As a student-led farm, it’s important to research agricultural best practices, synthesize information, and share knowledge with one another before planting season begins.
Regularly evaluating and improving organizational processes is a part of every successful organization, especially for building a culture of continuous learning and adaptability, in Southern Oregon’s changing agricultural landscape. Shifting climate patterns and evolving market demands require farms like ours to stay flexible and innovative in operations. Students take ownership of operations, addressing genuine needs and exploring their career interests.
By spring, students will have tangible portfolios showing what they’ve accomplished: field guides they designed, training videos they produced, schedules they created. More importantly, they’re gaining transferable skills in research, teaching, and problem-solving. These personal research projects represent professional development through real responsibility. Students leave with more than agricultural knowledge by gaining confidence in their ability to lead, create, and solve complex problems in any field they choose.
Upcoming Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
Registration is now open for The Farm at SOU’s 2026 Summer CSA — your chance to enjoy 12 weeks of fresh, pesticide-free, student-grown produce right here in the Rogue Valley! Choose a Full Share ($480, ideal for households of 3–4) or a Half Share ($300, ideal for 1–2 people), with weekly Wednesday pickups at 155 Walker Avenue in Ashland from June 24 through September 9. Sign up today here and show your support for the hardworking student farmers growing good food for our community. We’re grateful to have neighbors like you by our side!
Sustainability Spotlight: Our Sustainability Team Has Grown!
Recently our SOU Sustainability team has grown! We have brought on two new student workers! Each of them has provided excellent and unique perspectives to our team. This newsletter takes some time to get to know them and what they are working on!
Who are our new student employees?
Jessica (Jes) Muhlenkamp-Joranco is a freshman psychology student from Ashland.
Maisie Bandel-Ramirez is a senior economics and power & politics student from Oregon and a member of our women’s wrestling team.
Jes and Maisie are both student engagement leads for SOU Sustainability!
Fresh off of Ashland’s first snow of the winter, what is your go-to winter activity?
Jess enjoys a nice cup of hot chocolate and playing with her nephew in the snow!
Maisie uses the rolling hills of Ashland to her advantage and likes sledding!
Are you currently working on any exciting projects and what are you looking forward to work on in the future?
Jes is currently working with the Sustainability Office on a campus-wide energy conservation campaign. Specifically, she is developing the foundation for a dorm electricity use reduction challenge and trying to understand how SOU’s academic courses have an impact on our after-hours energy use.
Maisie is excited to work SOU’s winter preview day to connect with prospective students and families to showcase our university and IAS’s efforts across our community. Additionally, she is organizing events for our annual Arbor Day celebration and launching a sticker design contest! (More info on this is coming soon)
What advice do you have for other SOU students who might be interested in Sustainability at SOU?
Jes advocates that you don’t have to be a sustainability or environmental science major to become involved in campus sustainability. Jes says that with her psychology major, she provides a unique perspective to sustainability and enjoys working with SOU Sustainability.
Maisie wants her fellow students to be bold! SOU sustainability has plenty of lively events and interesting projects! If you are interested, feel free to reach out and get involved!
