VISION

Eco Education is a model environmental education organization that is recognized for:

• Integrating the natural, built and social environments
• Bringing together students, educators, school districts and community organizations as equitable collaborators
• Addressing authentic environmental issues in local communities

BELIEFS

We believe environmental education must go beyond knowledge to
practice skills in community problem-solving around environmental
issues.

We believe youth need a chance to investigate and act upon a problem
which is relevant to them in order to increase their motivation to
learn.

We believe the school and its community contain an untapped
abundance of rich resources for making education more meaningful to
youth.

We believe youth need to know that they can be forces of
constructive change, and that their involvement is needed in the
community.

We believe educators who guide youth deserve the time, opportunity
and support to practice new teaching methodologies, such as
service-learning.

We believe that schools serve as a hub for a community, and many
lasting changes depend on using the schools as an effective conduit to
citizens.

AWARDS

The Sustainable St. Paul Award for Excellence in Environmental Education and Awareness was awarded to Eco Education in 2008.

In 2008, Horace Mann Elementary students using the City Connections curriculum received a letter of recognition from St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman for their project gathering community input on the future of the Ford Plant site along the Mississippi in the Highland Park Neighborhood.

Two Eco Education student projects at Arlington High School won awards from the City of St. Paul inaugural 2007 St. Paul Sustainability Awards.

In 2007, Eco Education was one of four organizations selected to participate in a yearlong national pilot program on creating culturally inclusive environmental education organizations.

State Farm Companies Foundation featured Eco Education as a profile of community-based service-learning in G2G Growing to Greatness 2005: The State of Service-Learning Project.

The Minnesota Student Service Award for Outstanding Service-Learning was awarded by the Minnesota Department of Education for the Urban Stewards Program in 2004.