Sustainability Office Student Worker/Intern: The Truman State University Sustainability Office seeks to expand sustainability on campus, by providing resources and programs for students and community members. The office functions as a resource to students by providing information on different sustainability efforts on campus and hosting events promoting sustainable living. By coordinating and connecting different sustainability-related organizations on campus, the office seeks to create a more unified approach to improving environmental sustainability at Truman. The Sustainability Office offers scholarship and work-study positions for eligible students, as well as an internship for credit or institutional hours. If you are interested in working at the Sustainability Office or would like more information on available positions, please contact the Chair of the President’s Sustainability Action Committee, Donna Liss, at dliss@truman.edu.
- Scholarship Position: As a Sustainability Office Student Worker, students will be tasked with assisting in the creation and implementation of educational programs, managing office resources such as free or rentable reusables and specialty recycling, and finding new ways to encourage university groups and the community to adopt sustainable practices. Office Workers meet regularly with the Office Interns who coordinate and lead office activity.
- Internship: As the Sustainability Office Intern, the student will oversee scholarship and work-study workers in the office, organize events with on-campus sustainability organizations, hold weekly meetings with office workers, assure compliance with the President’s Sustainability Action Committee guidelines, coordinate with University faculty and staff on how to improve sustainability efforts on campus, and manage overall functionality of office space. Students have the option of doing the internship for credit or paid institutional hours.
Digital History in Sustainability Internship: Digital History in Sustainability Internship was created to document the strides in sustainability made at Truman State University through the maintenance and upkeep of the sustainability website. This website serves to provide a comprehensive resource for incoming students, current students, faculty, and staff on sustainability efforts on campus. As the Digital History in Sustainability Intern, the student will update and improve the Truman State University sustainability website and manage the Digital History in Sustainability email account. Students have the option of doing the internship for credit or for institutional hours. The internship is advertised through TruPositions and is usually offered in the Spring, but dates may vary depending upon the year. For more information on the internship, please contact the Chair of the President’s Sustainability Action Committee, Donna Liss, at dliss@truman.edu.
Bike Co-op Mechanic: The purpose of the Kirksville Bike Co-op is to provide an affordable and accessible educational training space for bike repair to campus and community members in order to increase the volume of cyclists in the Kirksville area. The Co-op offers not only to adjust, fix, and tune bikes for community members, but also seeks to instruct individuals on how to maintain the bicycle themselves. As a Bike Co-op Mechanic, you will be tasked with one or more of the following areas: selling bicycle parts, handing bicycle sales, repairing bicycles, instructing individuals how fix bicycles, handling financial accounts, and planning bicycle-related events. You are not required to have any prior experience in bicycle repair or maintenance to be eligible for these positions, only a general aptitude for mechanical skills. The Co-op currently offers work-study and scholarship positions, and doubles as a club with leadership positions. For a list of available positions, please visit TruPositions. For more information on the Co-op, contact Dr. Kenneth Carter at kcarter@truman.edu, email the co-op directly at kirksvillebikecoop@gmail.com, or visit the Co-op’s website.
The Compost Project: The Truman State University Compost Project is a campus organization dedicated to reducing food waste in Northeast Missouri through the collection, management, and transportation of community food scraps. The Compost Project collects food scraps from a number of community and camps dining areas including Sodexo and the Kirksville R-III School’s Early Childhood Learning Center and then deposits them in compost piles at the University Farm. After the decomposition process is complete, the compost is then re-allocated to community gardens as organic soil. This diverts waste from landfills and achieves a closed-loop system where very little energy and nutrients are lost.
- Scholarship Position: Students will be involved in one or more of the following areas: collecting unused food from University Dining Halls, transporting food to the University Farm, and constructing new compost piles. The Compost Project currently offers work-study and scholarship positions for eligible students, as well as a year-long internship for 4 hours of college credit. For a list of open positions, please visit TruPositions. For more information, contact Dr. Ben Wodika at bwodika@truman.edu, Thomas Felman at tjf1112@truman.edu, or view the project’s website.
- Internship: The Compost Project student intern oversees all day-to-day operations of the Compost Project and must complete a personal internship project to continue to build capacity and community support for the Compost Project. The year-long internship is available for 4 hours per semester of credit. For more information, please contact Dr. Michael Seiple at compostproject@truman.edu or view the project’s website.
University Farm Student Worker: The Truman State University Farm is a 400-acre farm located about a mile away from campus with two greenhouses, several garden plots, grazing land for cattle, and a number of large fields dedicated to raising vegetable crops. The duties/responsibilities of the University Farm Student Worker will vary depending upon the season and the amount of hours the student works, but can include a wide variety tasks. The University Farm employs scholarship and work-study workers during the Fall, Spring, and Summer; and may hire Institutional Workers depending upon the season. To get more information on student positions available on the University Farm, please contact Farm Manager Bill Kuntz at brkuntz@truman.edu. To view open positions on the University Farm, see TruPositions.
Green Thumb Project Student Worker/Internship: The Green Thumb Project is a local Missouri non-profit dedicated to providing access to and education on sources of nutritious food. These goals are accomplished through the maintenance and construction of community gardens in Kirksville. The Green Thumb Project is involved in 4 main areas in Kirksville, including Ray Miller Elementary School, the Early Childhood Learning Center, and Kirksville Housing Authority locations of Village 76 and Devlin Place. Students can get involved in a number of different areas within the Green Thumb Project, including community garden maintenance, compost collection, outdoor education lessons, and social media/website design. The Project offers scholarship and work-study positions, as well as summer internships, and will gladly take any volunteers that have a passion for local foods. The Green Thumb Project employs 4-5 interns each summer to oversee the summer garden operations, expand education and outreach programs, and coordinate events at various school garden work-sites. Internships are paid and are only available in the summer.
For a list of available positions see TruPositions or email the current AmeriCorps member at outdoored@kirksville.k12.mo.us. For more information or a list of upcoming events, visit the Green Thumb Project’s Facebook page.