ASU Project Cities program, Chandler partner on city parks research
Download mp3 (1.91 MB)Arizona State University has a program known as Project Cities, where undergraduate students and faculty work on sustainability projects chosen by local cities.
The city of Chandler is its newest partner.
Project Cities is a part of an international coalition of universities, which implements this partnership model of teaching and learning. ASU specifically has multiple city partners, with its newest being Chandler.
John Sefton with the city of Chandler says the initial project will be researching how community members use their parks.
“What and how are people engaging with their environment and then will that help us shape future decisions, future resource allocation. And ultimately the students will come up with their observations and some sets of recommendations on ways that we can address some of those specific micro and more macro project areas," Sefton said.
Since 2017, the program has completed 98 projects across eight communities.
Project Cities program manager Julia Davis says the program works with different ASU disciplines.
“We can have as many as five to 10 projects per community partner per semester. So, really the intent, and what we really like to do as a part of our program is actually work across multiple departments at one time," Davis said.
The Chandler partnership will last for five years.
