Since its start in the ‘90s, the Stewards of Creation Club (SOC) has connected students who share a passion for stewardship and sustainability.
The club often does outdoor activities, including enjoying nature through group hikes in the woods, removing invasive species of plants across campus, camping and more.
They also do a lot of activities that focus on sustainable living on campus. They eat meals together using foods from the Randall garden or natural ingredients. Picking up trash and encouraging conversation and perspectives about these topics is also a big focus.
The SOC also organizes the Randall Fall Fest. This festival consists of pumpkin carving, apple tasting, yard games (weather permitting) and a scavenger hunt. Cider and food are provided using apples from local farms and food from the Randall garden.
In 2018, the club celebrated Earth Day by planting fruit trees outside of the Randall building. The SOC also maintains the rain garden that they planted outside of Randall, which is designed to catch runoff rainwater from the building.
Phil Grabowski, the faculty advisor for the SOC, encouraged students to think about how they can improve sustainability on campus.
“What are the sustainability issues that people are facing living in this community?” Grabowski asked. “The club is very well aware (of) that because they're the people who live here, day in and day out, and care about these issues, so they can identify opportunities.”
Through these activities, it is the club’s goal to educate, have fun, encourage and raise awareness for sustainability on campus, all while growing in their relationship with God.
“There's a lot of spirituality to be found in the stewardship of creation; we want to just create a connection with nature and God through that,” junior Joshua Groeling, president of SOC, said. “We just strive to do that in all of our events.”
In the future, the SOC is hoping to continue to raise awareness and encourage deeper thinking about sustainability on campus. They also hope that students will engage in these activities through a theological perspective and understand the importance of being immersed in God’s creation.
The SOC finds that there is something special about being around people who are like minded in their love of God’s creation.
“If you go to this club and you see God's majesty and beauty through creation, (you would) realize there's little things you can do that actually make a difference," Grabowski said. “You'll feel encouraged and hopeful, where too often we think of creation, environmental issues, as (if) it's the end of the world.”
Randall has been a common meeting place for the club in the past, but starting next fall the Physician Assistant Program and Masters in Medical Sciences Program are moving into Randall. Because of this, the club will lose some of the quiet places that they would meet at in Randall, but they will still have the outdoor educational spaces available to them.
Moving forward, the SOC will be meeting in different places, but will continue as normal.
“Randall will be basically emptied, and they will renovate the entire building,” Grabowski said. “They should be done sometime in the summer this year, and then those other programs will move in. So what does it mean for the club? It's hard to know. It doesn't seem like it'll impact the club very much.”
Bringing together a wide variety of people who are like-minded in their care for the Earth is a big focus for the club. Members of the club have found that joining the SOC has broadened their community here at Taylor while also taking part in causes that they are passionate about.
“One of the important things is that it's people from all majors,” senior Natalie Staritz, club vice president, said, “It's not just environmental science or sustainable development. Anyone's welcome.”
For any questions regarding the Stewards of Creation Club, Groeling can be contacted through his email joshua_groeling@taylor.edu.
