The Concordia Greenhouse has long been a hub for sustainability, experiential learning, and student engagement. For fourteen years, it served the community from its well-known space on the 13th floor, providing opportunities for students to connect with plants, people, and projects. After navigating the challenges of COVID-19 and then relocating to the 7th floor, we remained committed to the belief that we would eventually return to our original home. However, with the recent news that our return may not be possible for another seven years, we must once again pivot in order to remain a relevant and impactful resource for students.
In this new chapter, our focus is on reviving and expanding our pre-COVID model of student internships. Volunteerism alone is no longer sustainable in our current space, and offering structured internships across a variety of domains rooted in sustainability provides both a meaningful pathway for students and long-term benefits for Concordia’s sustainability community. These internships will allow students from diverse academic backgrounds, including urban planning, computational arts, political science, and more to gain hands-on experience, develop transferable skills, and connect classroom theory with real-world practice. The Greenhouse Project whole heartedly believes that everyone should be compensated fairly for their labour, including students, regardless of whether or not they are receiving a credit for their internship or not. The ability to compensate interns would also open up the program to more departments who may not have “internship programs”, thereby diversifying the applications and possibilities. Funding for this project would be used for two internships per semester ($2000 ea), and a modest stipend for the advisor(s) ($500 per intern) to account for hours worked beyond their current contractual obligations.
The immediate results of this initiative will be the creation of new, credited opportunities that engage students in applied learning while supporting the Greenhouse’s ongoing programming. In the long term, these internships will strengthen Concordia’s culture of sustainability, foster leadership, and position the Greenhouse as an indispensable resource within the university.
This funding request is designed to be a transitional measure, one that will allow us to reassert our role within academic learning circles and student life while we continue to lobby for a fee levy increase, and source grants that will lead toward the eventual goal of returning to the 13th floor.
YEARS FUNDED
2025
AMOUNT ALLOCATED
$5,000