The Green Initiative Fund Final Report Outline

Kryder TGIF grant report, Business & Professional Writing Contest & Teacher Training

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The Green Initiative Fund Final Report Outline Title: Business Plans/Project Proposals/Promotional Materials for a Sustainable Future (or “Business Plan Project”) Preparer: Dr. LeeAnne G. Kryder Department: Writing Program Brief Project Summary: I had three goals for this project. One was to encourage and enable ten other writing teachers to infuse sustainability into course readings and major course assignments. The second goal was to motivate students, especially business economics students, to learn about sustainability by researching and writing for documents eligible for a special contest with cash prizes. The third was to raise awareness about TGIF and sustainability. I developed training materials for a training workshop in September 2007. Three campus sustainability experts (Katie, Logan, and Perrin) also attended and later served as resources for the instructors and students. At least 25 writing courses (approximately 625 students) were taught with sustainability as a topic. The contest had 25 entries (most collaborative) —66 students for the business plan; 25 students for the project proposal; and 7 for the promotional package. Because the Writing Program incorporated the TGIF awards into an existing award ceremony, I believe we got additional publicity for TGIF and sustainability. The project funding included a stipend for the project leader, ten teachers, and two librarians; funds for students authoring the first-place business plan, project proposal, and promotional packet; and promotional materials for the TGIF writing contest and award ceremony. Of the awarded $7,250.00, we spent all but $132.00 (please see Excel worksheet). Rating of Project Success: I’d evaluate the project as a B+. I believe that my curriculum and awareness goals were achieved, but I was too optimistic in two areas: time for some faculty to feel comfortable enough to promote sustainability as a topic, and time to secure donor funding for next year. For the most part, the results exceeded my expectations! By investing in teachers, the learning “keeps on giving.” The majority of the instructors kept teaching sustainability after their one required class, and some of the teachers began sharing new reading materials they located. Of the original ten instructors who participated, only one did not anticipate teaching sustainability again next year. But for teachers outside of the main business writing courses—those teaching writing for science and writing for the visual arts—their confidence level needed more time to develop. So, for the proposal writing category, we had only five entries (representing 25 students); I anticipate more entries for next year.

Kryder TGIF grant report, Business & Professional Writing Contest & Teacher Training

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As you may remember—because I had to reapply for a follow-up grant for next year—I was so busy with managing the grant activities that I didn’t have time to pursue funding for the next year’s contest. However, I did attract a new prize that will be available next year too: Mr. Alan Tratnor, CEO of Green2Gold (a green business incubation center in Santa Barbara) offered a full year of support to the first place winner of the TGIF business plans. The students were thrilled and I am delighted that Alan also served as a judge for the business plan contest. Overall, I was able to survey 507 students who participated in writing courses that emphasized sustainability. I was delighted with the varied topics for the business plans and proposals (see below) and the students’ expressed increased awareness of sustainability issues and motivation to learn more/promote sustainability practices. Sample Business Plan and Project Proposal Topics: Home Energy Retrofit Consultants Residential solar installers Sun-charged cell phones Pesticide-Free floral business Biodegradable food service packaging Organic fertilizer business Bamboo water bottles Bike sharing program in Washington, DC Green gym (energy from exercise) Eco-friendly pet store Ethanol conversion kits for cars Vegetable gardening service Farmer’s Market on UCSB campus Small wind machines (MIT creation) Astro turf replacing UCSB grass near bike paths

Pitfalls Encountered: I encountered two pitfalls that I hope to not encounter next year! The first was my own error: I was too busy administering this project and should have incorporated an intern to assist with the contest and event planning. Fortunately, I teach business communication minors who need internships and I was able to get a student to help create a website for the contest and award ceremony. I hope to attract one of my students next year who would provide more substantial help in managing the three different writing contests and the award event. This should free me up a bit to continue the quest for contest funding. The second pitfall was not under my control: new costs associated with the award ceremony. In the past, the award ceremony consisted of only a guest speaker and recognition of the student awards. The donor who sponsors this annual ceremony also gave us funds for a special dinner after the ceremony, for the guest speaker, the contest judges, and some of the key faculty. This year our faculty decided on a new event: instead of the dinner, they decided to host a pre-event reception for the student finalists. We all liked this and intend to continue doing this next year, but this became a problem because we wanted to include the TGIF award-winning students and the TGIF judges but needed $150.00! I ended up using $100 of my stipend to help pay for this, and another teacher chipped in $50. But next year I will want to secure some donor funding so I can again invite TGIF folks to the reception. Final Project Budget: See Excel worksheet.

Kryder TGIF grant report, Business & Professional Writing Contest & Teacher Training

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Brief Summary of Overall Experience: As an original “change agent” for UCSB sustainability, I sought a way to integrate sustainability principles and practices in humanities curriculum. Resulting from this grant, ten more teachers can teach sustainability; two have already introduced sustainability into other classes that they teach. We introduced sustainability into at least 25 classes (approximately 625 students, about 85% business majors) in just two quarters, and more students learned about sustainability through the TGIF writing contest and award event. Our librarians created a subject page, Sustainability in Higher Education (http://www.library.ucsb.edu.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:2048/subjects/envi/sustainability.pdf ), and we have begun a website that honors TGIF professional writing winners (http://bizcommucsb.com/Award_Page/winners.html).