Andrea Pesavento in Vassar’s Office of Health Promotion and Education received a Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Higher Ed/Harm Reduction Pilot program grant through the NYS Conference of Local Mental Hygiene Directors. This program is training MHFA instructors at five participating colleges who will then lead sessions for students, faculty, and staff.
Keri VanCamp, Director of the Preserve at Vassar–in collaboration with Jen Rubbo, Director of the Environmental Cooperative; Dean Jaeger, Grounds Manager; Evan Lasher, Grounds Foreman; and Ethan Skuches, Vassar-Kenauk Conservation Fellow–was selected by the Partners for Climate Action (PCA) for an Ecological Restoration Grant supporting creative and engaging ways to support pollinators through native meadow restoration in the Hudson Valley bioregion.
Kenneth Foster, Director of Sustainability, received a grant from the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps fellowship program to host a summer fellow. EDF’s Climate Corps is a “hands-on summer program” where graduate students are matched with top companies and nonprofit organizations to advance climate and energy goals. Vassar has hosted multiple EDF summer fellows since 2014.
With support from the Mellon Foundation-funded Community-Engaged Intensives in the Humanities (CEIH) grant, Office of Community-Engaged Learning’s (OCEL) Elizabeth Cannon and Zoë Markwalter presented at the 2024 International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) Intersections Conference. They traveled to the University of San Diego’s Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice and shared their presentation on “Pedagogical Innovations through Community-Engaged Coursework and Compensation of Community Partners as Co-Educators.”
The Terra Foundation for American Art (Chicago, IL) has made a major grant to the Loeb to support planning with a diverse group of advisors for a reinstallation of the Founding Galleries, home of the mid-nineteenth century works of the Hudson River School that were part of Vassar’s original art collection.
Vassar welcomed to campus for the first time Jacob Mnookin, Director of Partnership and Innovation at the Davis United World College Scholars Program, which provides scholarships and other support to graduates of the 18 United World Colleges who are pursuing undergraduate degrees at Vassar and 100 other institutional partners nationwide.
John Bradley, Executive Director of the Vassar Education Collaboration (VEC), received a Community Fund Grant from United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region to support the Vassar English Language Learners Outreach Program (VELLOP)
Jennifer Rubbo, Director of the Environmental Cooperative, received a NYS OCFS (Office of Children and Family Services) Youth Development Program Grant that will fund summer job opportunities for local youth to work alongside Vassar students and staff to implement the Exploring Science Program at the Vassar Preserve.
