Community Service Scholar Ryan Gillard works at Birdsfoot Farm, a local organic vegetable farm, as an intern, volunteer and CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) member.  As the leader of the Environmental Action Organization (EAO) on campus, he has focused the group’s energy on the Canton community; EAO has started weatherization projects and held open forums on climate change. In Lettuce Turnip the Beet, SLU’s local/sustainable foods group, he says, “We have engaged the campus community in discussion on local foods, introduced local farmers and SLU students to each other, and supported these farmers by encouraging increased purchase by the University of locally-produced foods.”  As if that were not enough to keep him occupied, Ryan has also participated in Make a Difference Day through St. Lawrence’s Center for Civic Engagement.

“Receiving the Community Service Scholarship was an acknowledgement of my involvement and energy invested in my surrounding community,” says Ryan. “I was pleased that this is something SLU recognizes with such great financial assistance. It made SLU stand out as I was looking at colleges.” 

Ryan lives in the Green House Theme Cottage, which he describes as “a very valuable experience. Not only have I learned a lot about myself,” he explains, “but also I have been integrated into a community of my peers who share similar lifestyles and are also willing to think critically about important social, environmental and academic concerns.  His most meaningful academic experience has been the Adirondack Semester, which he says was “an immersion in nature that reshaped my concept of bioregionalism.”