Charlotte, N.C. / November 24, 2020 - Dr. Mark Dugo recently joined Johnson C. Smith University faculty and he is wasting no time making an impact. The assistant professor of biology, natural science and mathematics, is also director of the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainability. Dugo is building on the success of JCSU’s award-winning Sustainability Village by developing a minor, with courses launching in January 2021.
“What we want is for this minor to be successful. We want it to be attractive to all students. And we want it to have a lot of traffic,” Dugo said.
The minor is 18 credit hours, which includes six core hours of classroom learning. The other 12 hours will be completed at Sustainability Village. The sustainability minor is not limited to students in STEM, students of all majors are welcome. “If they chose the minor, they could infuse concepts of sustainability into their senior investigative paper,” Dugo added.
While some think of Sustainability Village as just a place to grow fruits and vegetables, Dugo, who has a background in environmental health, emphasized students will also learn about health justice and economic disparity in courses under this minor. In addition, students will study ways to help the surrounding community with food security.
“Sustainability is about having a way of life that that assures the perpetuity to success in future generations,” he said. “The idea of sustainability is now a major theme for business. It's a major theme for human health. No matter what you choose to do professionally, sustainability is a critically important theme and concept for all academic disciplines for all professions.”
In addition to the minor, Dugo hopes to add credentialing and certification programs in the near future.
