Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment

RISE students teach elementary students from Lansing about soils, compost and farming at the MSU Student Organic Farm. RISE students teach elementary students from Lansing about soils, compost and farming at the MSU Student Organic Farm.

RISE is a living-learning program for MSU students interested in stewardship of the environment. RISE students get their feet wet and their hands dirty applying knowledge to reallife problems and projects. The program offers two different ways for students to be involved:

  • Residential program (for incoming freshmen). Students live together with other RISE students on designated floors in Hubbard Hall. They enroll in special reserved sections of chemistry, math, writing, and biology, and participate in field activities with the program coordinator and resident mentors. RISE students have conducted energy audits in MSU residence halls, lobbied state legislators to pass a bill prohibiting garbage from other states from entering Michigan, gardened with elementary school children, and mapped contamination from a Superfund toxic waste site.
  • Environmental studies specialization. This specialization is added to a student's major after the freshman year. Students do not need to be in the residential program to add the specialization. Any student with a major in one of the participating colleges can be involved in RISE.

Visit naturalscience.msu.edu/students/rise for more information.

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