Community Environmental College (CEC)
“building the next generation of Environmental Justice leaders through a high-impact 8-week summer leadership institute”
Click here to learn about the program’s history and background
Slots are still available for summer 2015! See information below:
You can also support the CEC and our year-round after-school program, ECO Youth, by purchasing an ad in the CEC Graduation Ad Book. See below for more information:
2014: The CEC turns 6!
2014 CEC by the numbers:
- 23 Students participated 3 days per week, 7 hours per day, for 8 weeks (168 hours each)
- 10 “Graduate Students” (former graduates who returned to participate in internships and lead hands-on community projects
- 6 Teaching Assistants / TAs (former graduates hired to help teachers run the program)
- 6 Teachers in co-teacher pairs for each of the 3 classes (Revolution 101, Environmental Justice, and Food Justice). 1 co-teacher per class is a former CEC student and TA who developed their leadership skills through the program and is now in charge of facilitating other young people’s learning experience.
- 17 Group Trips on the Green DRIVE Bus, including class-time activities and trips to farms, parks, beaches, and conferences.
- 4 Snack Distribution Days of cooking and distributing fresh healthy and FREE snacks to kids living in Providence’s food deserts
- 18 Final Action Projects created by CEC students to educate the community and create solutions to issues they learned about during the summer.
- 5 Guest Speakers lead fascinating workshops and talkbacks about environmental and social justice.
- Click here for CEC student demographic information
Trips and Activities
We used our Green DRIVE Bus to take CEC students on many trips and interactive learning expeditions throughout the summer:
We did a Toxic Tour to learn about sites including Mashapaug Pond, which was polluted by the Gorham Silver Manufacturing Plant and is a major EJ League campaign:
And we also took time to have fun, build relationships, and spend quality time with the natural world!
2013 Graduation Ceremony
Thank you to EJ League Board Member, Professor Elizabeth Hoover for speaking at our Graduation Ceremony, and a huge thank you to Senator Juan Pichardo for speaking and giving all our students, graduate students, TAs, and teachers a Citation from the State of Rhode Island!
Students presented their final projects to an audience of approximately 250 people at Brown University’s Alumnae Hall
What problems to CEC students see in their environment?
And how do CEC graduates respond?
What do CEC students learn about? And do they learn?
What’s the demographic information for CEC students?
Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island 
what are the age requirements??
The program is designed for teenagers, primarily high school students but we have accepted mature 7th or 8th graders who are are 13 or older.