Enhance Undergraduate Environmental Research and Education and the Workplace with Partnerships.

Environmental science outreach initiatives and partnerships at Wesley College have been funded as a part of the Delaware EPSCoR grant since 2005.  A major focus has been to build an infrastructure to enhance undergraduate research through internships and mentored projects, to integrate undergraduate research into courses and to develop external partnerships. Collaborations with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), The Sassafras River Association (SRA), The Delaware Center for the Inland Bays (DCIB) and the City of Dover (COD), Delaware Office of Planning have been established.  These partners have provided additional training in geographic information system (GIS) and field and laboratory techniques. The EPSCoR grant has been instrumental in increasing the visibility of the Wesley College Environmental Studies (ES) Program and the partners have benefited by having young professionals complete research that otherwise would not have been done.  Descriptions of partnerships will be presented that focus on computer modeling and GIS applications (SRA, DNREC, COD), water quality monitoring (SRA), stream restoration (DCIB), stormwater compliance (COD), watershed management, environmental education outreach (COD) and applied statistical analyses (SRA).  These projects have strengthened the ES program and broadened the scope and depth of activities and projects with the external partners.  External partners now include the ES program in project planning discussions.  Based on this partnership experience, colleges and universities need to consider new funding opportunities, to integrate grants into their academic and research activities that foster partnership collaboration and to explicitly integrate these opportunities into the academic structure.