Environmental Literacy and Cross-Border Citizenship
Through community-based educational and environmental programming we promote civic engagement, youth leadership, environmental literacy and economic development.
The UC San Diego–Divina Community Station is a dedicated site of student and community learning in the informal canyon community of Divina Providencia, a site of severe marginalization just a few miles from our campus. UC San Diego students do not need to travel great distances to engage sites of poverty and deprivation. They can exercise global responsibility right here, a few miles from our campus.
The Divina site is an important node for cross-border waste management, since waste-water and trash move from active dumping sites above and end directly at our site. We are working closely with the nonprofit to develop educational workshops for residents and youth that increase literacy about waste and environmental health. We also develop environmental activities that increase food access, and transform vacant and neglected spaces into green infrastructure to conserve water and reduce waste and pollution.
We have also co-developed a five-station afterschool computer lab and a pedagogic garden as educational enhancements for primary school students (grades 1-6) who attend a half-day of school at the Primaria Basilio Badillo across the street.
Our goal in the next stage is to scale up this programming in the new UC San Diego–Divina Community Station building, to increase the programmatic capacity of the nonprofit. The building itself is designed as a pedagogical tool, rendering transparent the social and energy systems it contains.
The UC San Diego–Divina Community Station is a public space that educates. Ultimately we believe children are the cross-border citizens of the future.
