The deadline to apply for the 2012 National Environmental Summit for High School Students has been extended to June 14. The event, "Redesigning Our Future," is an intensive experience which is open to high school students who will be juniors and seniors in the 2012-2013 academic year. It will be held July 9-14 on the Catawba College campus.

The Center for the Environment at Catawba College received one of four 2012 N.C. Mobile Clean Air Renewable Energy (CARE) Awards from the N.C. Solar Center/N.C. State University on April 20 at the 9th Annual Sustainable Energy Conference in Raleigh. The Center's Campaign for Clean Air was the winner in the Policy/Organization Innovation category.

Catawba College is one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in the U.S.A. and Canada, according to The Princeton Review (www.PrincetonReview.com). The Salisbury, North Carolina-based college was one of 322 schools included in the third annual edition of "The Princeton Review's Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2012 Edition." Catawba joins 10 other North Carolina colleges and universities included in this free, downloadable book...

Three Catawba College students and one faculty sponsor represented the North Carolina Omicron chapter at the super-regional convention of Alpha Chi, the national college honor society, March 22-24 in Baltimore, Md.

By Sarah Robinson, Catawba College Student Intern. An air of excitement fills the student center. Dozens of students are lined up 20 minutes before the event begins. Sustainable Catawba hosted a successful kickoff Tuesday, February 21st, in the Cannon Student Center on the Catawba College campus. During the event, 193 students, faculty, and staff (including College President Dr. Joseph Oxendine) pledged to make sustainable behaviors a habit in their daily routines.

The Center for the Environment at Catawba College and Salisbury's Bread Riot will host a screening of "Dirt! The Movie," followed by a panel discussion, which includes a Davidson County farmer, on March 1 at the center facility on the Catawba campus. Bread Riot, a nonprofit food advocacy organization dedicated to "facilitating a supply of locally produced food, utilizing sustainable farming practices," will offer a "tasting" of local foods at 6 p.m. The movie will begin at 6:45 p.m.

By Sarah Robinson, Writer/Communications Intern for the Center for the Enviornment - A collaborative effort called "Sustainable Catawba" will soon unveil a new approach to sustainability on the Catawba College campus. Representatives from several campus organizations gathered February 9 to discuss their vision for the effort as well as to report on what their groups currently do to promote sustainability.

On-campus collaboration between Catawba College student groups, organizations, and academic and operational departments is key to creating a new vision for Sustainable Catawba. An effort to seal this collaboration launches February 21 with a pledge.

Noting that only two higher education institutions in the Carolinas were selected to receive a prestigious Duke Energy 2011 Power Partner Award, Catawba College President Joseph B. Oxendine accepted Catawba's award during a Jan. 25 luncheon hosted by Duke Energy on campus. Oxendine explained that Catawba College and Clemson University were the only two higher education institutions tapped for the awards.

The Catawba Conservation Camp, a summer camp that teaches middle school girls about the importance of conserving and protecting the natural environment, will continue operating this summer, thanks to a $25,000 Ribbon of Hope grant. In late 2011, the NC GlaxoSmithKline Foundation's Board of Directors awarded the Ribbon of Hope grant to Catawba College to continue its Catawba Conservation Camp or C3 that began in 2009 with funding provided by a three-year grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.