Clubs and service opportunities are two of the biggest components of life on the Hill. The Environmental Club ties the two together with various service projects across campus and throughout the local area. 

Science teacher Mrs. Jennifer Duffin-Alexander described one of these as collecting recycling across campus. “We recycle every Wednesday morning between 8 and 8:30 a.m. and (club members) get service hours for it,” she said. 

Each Wednesday morning, Duffin-Alexander said that the students “basically just take the big yellow recycling bins in the hallway and wheel them down the hall, and they go into the teachers’ rooms and grab the little blue bins and dump them. They do that on every floor (in Kelly Hall). In Loretto, there’s only one yellow recycling bin, and it’s on the main floor because it’s too hard to go up and down the stairs. For that (building) they just run upstairs and grab the bins and bring them down to dump them. So that (building) is kind of a pain. Cunningham is the same way.”

In addition to collecting recycling from all three of the buildings, the students who volunteer also give teachers recycling bins if they are missing them in their classroom or office.  

Anyone can partake in the service opportunity. Duffin-Alexander said, “Students can email me and I can put them on the Environmental Club group Schoology page and they can get to the SignUpGenius. Once they’re on the Schoology group, they can view all of the club documents. I usually post the SignUpGenius about a month in advance. I like to give them instructions before they just sign up, so that way they know what they’re doing.”

The Environmental Club is student-led, so Duffin-Alexander said that the club focuses on whatever the students are interested in. She said, “One year we did a service project where we helped plant a garden at a disadvantaged Catholic elementary school in Downtown Indy. Other times we’ve done park cleanups in Fort Ben or Eagle Creek. We also do all of the signage by the recycling bins telling you what you can and can’t recycle.

“This year, we’re going to get the greenhouse started back up here in the spring. We just had the heaters replaced out there, so we should be good to go. We’re also getting ready to do these tower gardens that will be placed somewhere in the lunchroom.”

Duffin-Alexander said, “(Environmental Club) is a great experience to get service hours for doing different projects around the school and other places. It’s kind of nice to knock out some service hours and help out our school and community.”