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DEVELOPING THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS AND PROBLEM SOLVERS: Mason students are committed to making the world a better place and that’s obvious with majors they are choosing. Mason’s Environmental and Sustainability Studies degree program is one of the first of its kind in the nation. From minors to PhD programs, students are also studying conservation, environmental science, and climate dynamics, among other topics. Civil engineers are focusing on sustainable land development, and physics majors are looking at renewable energy.
ENGINEERING A BETTER FUTURE: The student organization Engineers for International Development works with under-devel oped communities around the world to improve residents’ quality of life with engineering projects. Teams of students, faculty, and alumni have worked on sustainable infrastructure projects such as clean drinking water and sanitation systems in South America.
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6 PARDON THE GARDEN: Mason has converted trouble some landscaping areas into bumblebee and butterfly gar dens to keep our campus colorful while attracting not only butterflies and the all-important bees, but birds, spiders, and ladybugs—natural predators of plant-damaging insects.
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NUTRITIOUS AND DELICIOUS: The Presidents Park Hydroponic Greenhouse, run by the Office of Sustainability, har vests edible herbs and vegetables yearround. In its first year, the greenhouse supplied campus food service provider Sodexo and Mason’s kitchens with 1,400 pounds of greens, valued at $14,400. The goal for year two is 2,000 pounds, valued at roughly $20,000. To find out more, see story on page 13. Summer 2017 M A S O N S P I R I T | 23