This is how Wade Snowdon, coordinator of the (SALT) program, characterizes volunteers, ages 18-30, who decide to spend a year of service with .

Recently, nine alumni from ��ݮ����, among 51 “SALTers,” headed off to their new assignments around the globe.

They are:

James Souder ’13 ( and international development) from Harrisonburg, Virginia, is a communication and documentation assistant with MCC in Burkina Faso. [Read more .]

Chaska Yoder ’14 (/) from Plain City, Ohio, is the youth activities assistant in the Chaldean Archdiocese of Erbil, Iraq.

Dominik Berthold ’14 (social work and ) from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is exit program manager at Lily of the Valley Children’s Village in South Africa.

Donavan Duttweiler ’14 () from Nunda, New York, is a community worker in Lieux de Vie in Burkina Faso.

Karla Hovde ‘15 ( and ) from Mulberry, Indiana, is a social media assistant with Basha Enterprises, Ltd., in Bangladesh.

David Hooley ’15 (and ) from Bluffton, Ohio, is a teaching and IT assistant at Songhor Secondary School in Kenya.

Jesse Parker ’15 ( and ) from Wichita, Kansas, is an agricultural assistant at Anafora Retreat Centre in Egypt.

Daniel Friesen ‘15, (psychology and ) is a manuscript editor with The Gioi World Publishing House in Vietnam.

Melinda Norris ’15 (environmental sustainability and ) from Staunton, Virginia, is an education assistant at Gateway Christian School in South Africa. [Read more .]

Royals bring special peace and justice backgrounds

SALT volunteers come from many different backgrounds, Snowdon said, noting that EMU alumni are characterized by their proven “desire for and understanding of peace and social justice. They come to us with a firm foundation in what it means to humbly work alongside communities in need in ways that are empowering and help to maintain the dignity to those we serve.”

The year of SALT service often contributes to a strong resume and the development of attributes that employers find attractive, Snowdon said, including strong communication skills, creativity and adaptability, and a well-rounded and versatile skill set.

When asked if the SALT experience helped her professionally, one SALT and EMU alumna responded in the affirmative – with an exclamation point.

From SALT into the public health field

After graduating in 2012 from EMU with a degree in biology and a chemistry minor, Laura Beidler spent a year as a public health advisor with Nepali public health NGO Shanti Nepal.

“I assisted with English documentation, attended and participated in community workshops and celebrations that focused on toilet building and use, prenatal care and childhood nutrition, and taught English to my Nepali coworkers,” said Beidler, who eventually returned to the United States to earn her master’s of public health at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College.

There, she found her SALT year had given her unique “practical experiences and a different perspective about public health that many of the students in my graduate school cohort did not have,” she said.

Beidler is now a health policy fellow at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, currently working with a research team studying the adoption of evidence-based innovations by health care systems.

“Living in Nepal helped me to learn to be patient and improved my ability to work with diverse groups of people,” she said.

While SALT doesn’t offer a large number of health-related assignments each year, Snowdon said that “the majority have been filled by those with nursing or biology degrees from EMU. These individuals have served in a variety of ways including as nurses and in HIV/AIDS support programs in countries such as Nepal, Nigeria, and Indonesia.”

Nicole Groff ’14 worked in such a program in Papua, Indonesia, and has developed a professional goal of becoming a physician’s assistant. “This past year has helped me to see the connection between structural/social issues and the health of people’s lives and the importance of culturally sensitive development work,” she says. “It’s helped me learn more of what I’m passionate about, but also why God has given me those passions.”

EMU was among 173 schools nationwide named , based on commitments to greening every level of their operations – from energy usage to recycling to food sourcing to curriculum.

“One of the things that makes EMU different is that sustainability at EMU is not just a grassroots effort,” said professor in a recent interview with EMU news services. While there are certainly such efforts on campus, the commitment to sustainability has developed as a result of official EMU support.

Key step was staffing

The creation of a recycling coordinator position in 2005 was a big step along the way. , who held that position for five years until becoming EMU’s coordinator, worked to increase campus community awareness of recycling.

He started by tracking what EMU was already doing. He found the campus recycled about 20% of its waste. He and his work-study students introduced better signage about recycling, as well as new color-coded bins into residence halls, academic buildings and faculty offices to make proper waste disposal easy and convenient. Lantz-Trissel also included recycling education in the first-year orientation program. Now, nine years later, the percentage of waste that EMU recycles is closer to 50%.

As far as Lantz-Trissel knows, EMU is the only university that picks up recyclables entirely by bicycle. This came about through a cost-saving decision, he said, when the pickup truck used for recycling rounds needed a new clutch: “To replace the clutch was going to be $650. I said that for $550 I’ll get a bike and trailer and you can sell the truck.”

Recycling by bicycle

EMU agreed to give recycling by bicycle a try, although his supervisor was skeptical that it would last more than six months.

“EMU is the perfect size for using bikes and trailers,” said current recycling crew leader . “The geography of the campus also helps considerably.”

Freed collects the majority of EMU’s recyclables from uphill sites, enabling him to coast down to where these need to be deposited for trucking away. “We actually don’t carry any heavy loads uphill…it’s mainly just good brakes to keep the loads from running away from us,” said Lantz-Trissel with a laugh.

The recycling crew consists of at least one work-study student who is always “passionate about what they are doing,” said Lantz-Trissel. “They like getting on a bike and peddling around recycling.”

Earthkeepers club

Besides the recycling work-study position, the heaviest student involvement with campus sustainability efforts comes from the environmental club .

“We get volunteers to collect compost from the cafeteria Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays,” explained co-president and senior Melinda Norris.

“You have to have people who are reliable,” in order for collecting compost via volunteers to work, said Lantz-Trissel. “I have never talked to another university who has students that have been that committed to composting…usually it ends up failing and people in the facilities end up handling it.”

Other Earthkeepers projects include providing clotheslines in residence hall laundry rooms, sponsoring Food and Farming Week (a week of cafeteria meals in the fall based around local, in-season foods), and installing timers on the campus tennis courts that turn the lights on for a designated time-frame.

In the spring semester, Earthkeepers helps the recycling crew in “,” an annual intercollegiate recycling competition. EMU has placed in the top 25% each year.

Presidential support

sits on the board of the and has signed the statement.

Recently, EMU became one of the first 25 institutions of higher education in 10 states to commit to “,” aimed at reducing or eliminating the use or generation of hazardous substances.

Perhaps the greatest testament to the EMU community’s commitment to increased sustainability, though, is the .

“Each institution seeking reaffirmation of Accreditation is required to develop a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP),” states the website for the. “The QEP describes a carefully designed and focused course of action that addresses a well-defined topic or issue(s) related to enhancing student learning.”

For EMU, that topic has been strengthening “care for God’s creation by enhancing our knowledge, values, and actions” and increasing “sustainable practices at the university.”

Campus-wide through QEP

The QEP “helps spread sustainability to students who would not necessarily be drawn to that,” said Yoder, a member of the Peace With Creation committee.

The plan moves sustainability beyond the committed students who are already on the bike collecting recyclables and in the cafeteria helping with composting. The plan invites the community as a whole to participate, with the faculty encouraged to weave sustainability lessons and themes through their curricula as much as possible.

Students are urged to bicycle or walk instead of driving locally. In recent years, they’ve help tend the university’s five beehives, four produce gardens, and dozens of fruit trees, with the results sometimes ending up in .

For information on the full range of EMU’s sustainability efforts – including solar energy panels and LEED-certified residence halls – visit EMU’s .