KEEN is a company with the desire to do better and improve their industry. They are continually challenging the status quo by finding ways to innovate manufacturing so that it may exceed the highest social and environmental standards; they call this ‘The KEEN Effect’. As an independently owned company, they are determined to live their values from product to action and by investing in communities and individuals who protect and preserve the places where we work and play.
If it was not already clear what the Faculty of Environment and a sustainability-focused shoe company have in common, then Rob Brydges, General Manager of KEEN Canada, summarizes it best. “As an independently owned company that creates versatile, eco-friendly and quality outdoor gear, we care a great deal about the environment. We are committed to putting our values into motion and are excited to find such great partners in the University of Waterloo and the Nature Conservancy of Canada”. It is the desire to support the success of students who are dedicated to creating sustainable solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges that bring not two, but three incredible communities together in this endeavor.
We say we need to do more.
Because in times like these,
Hoping for better,
Or even talking about it,
Is simply not enough.
We must strive to do better.
To make a better world.
We believe making things better,
Making anything better,
Takes action.
- KEEN
This new program will offer five new four-month internships with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) valued at $10,000, as well as ten scholarships, each valued at $5,000, for graduate students entering the Master of Climate Change, Master of Economic Development Practice, and Master of Economic Development and Innovation programs. In partnering with KEEN, and the NCC, Waterloo can continue to empower students to enact the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. The faculty’s Global Citizen Internships provide students with the opportunity to enhance their classroom experience through hands-on experiential learning with a not-for-profit partner. The KEEN Global Citizen Internships will allow Environment students to get hands-on experience with the NCC’s efforts to protect natural areas and biodiversity through their projects and programs. “The KEEN Global Citizen Internship will be a tremendous impetus to foster new ideas and talent when it comes to helping safeguard nature” explains Erica Thompson, National Director, Conservation Engagement, at the Nature Conservancy of Canada. “This innovative partnership will enable NCC to accomplish meaningful work in support of ecologically significant lands and the communities depending upon them, while providing solid experiential learning opportunities for future leaders working within the environmental sector.”
Experiential learning is a hallmark of Waterloo’s Faculty of Environment education, and it has never occurred to the Faculty to teach any other way. As this form of education continues to evolve at the University, students continue to gain confidence, worldview and maturity as a result.
Waterloo’s Faculty of Environment is about more than just the changing world around us; it is about educating students who want to lead the effort to find solutions for the complex challenges we face today. To that end it comes as no surprise that to mark Canada’s largest faculty of environment’s 50th birthday, Jean Andrey, Dean of Environment and Chair of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Canada, has set a goal of creating 50 Global Citizen Internship opportunities for students. Her dedication to the success of her students is backed by her own enthusiasm for what we do here at Waterloo.
The world needs us more than ever. So, as we celebrate our first 50 years, let us not be bound by our past. As others have said, 'What got us here, won’t take us there.' So, let’s continue to be bold in our vision, open in our approach, and willing to change ourselves and our world.
- Dean Andrey
