Case Study: Dr. Michael Cohen and The Sonoma County Water Agency
Dr. Michael Cohen, professor of microbiology, explains why service-learning is so beneficial to the students. “Service-learning can be a great opportunity for students to apply what they are learning in the classroom to the real world.”
Sonoma County Water Agency’s (SCWA) mission is to effectively manage the water resources in their care for the benefit of people and the environment through resource and environmental stewardship, technical innovation, and responsible fiscal management. They achieve this mission by partnering with other community organizations, businesses, and our faculty and students. One of SCWA’s biggest challenges is supporting the recycling of wastewater from local wineries.
Dr. Michael Cohen, SSU professor of microbiology, is involved in the SSU WATERS collaborative. WATERS addresses local watershed management issues by providing funding for faculty-led water-related community-based projects. WATERS partners with SCWA. WATERS and SCWA helped Dr. Cohen to begin his long-term project of sustainably treating winery wastewater. He got his students involved through teaching a service-learning class.
Dr. Cohen and his service-learning classes work closely with wineries in Sonoma County in attempts to clean waste water on site. Two of his classes gather data in attempts to monitor fecal chloroform. The students dedicate countless hours in the lab to research methods and practices to recycle wastewater. The students also work on site at wineries to test the application of a microbial fuel cell-based system for treating the wastewater. As one of Dr. Cohen’s students attested to, “The programs we did in Dr. Cohen’s lab are a great way to demonstrate perseverance and innovation.”
“If we think there’s an opportunity to do more in terms of sustainability, we jump on it,” explained one of the winery owners. The work of the service-learners in developing biological wastewater treatments is appreciated by SCWA and the local wineries. Professor Cohen and his students are having a real impact on the environment.
Dr. Cohen was first introduced to service-learning during his time as a student at California State University, Fresno, where one of his professors was involved in California Campus Compact. He participated in microbiology courses that were centered around project-based service for the community. This type of class is crucial in the education realm; he explained in detail how it allows students to step out of the classroom and perform real world work with microbiology. Once he experienced service-learning courses as an undergrad, he was hooked. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, and now teaches four different microbiology courses here at Sonoma State. These courses incorporate his passions for environmental microbiology and biological wastewater treatments.
One of Professor Cohen’s former students, Gaby Arango, took what she learned in his service-learning class and made a career out of it. Gaby runs a non-profit organization called Crecer ConCiencia, whose mission is to inspire children to get involved with science. Gaby explained that without the help of Professor Cohen and his service-learning class, her dream of starting this non-profit might have remained just a dream. “Dr. Cohen gave me the tools to conduct my own analysis within my community. I found out that the Latino community would like to have informal science education, both kids and adults, in their language. This past semester, I've worked on this idea as a side project and now it is almost legally a non-profit.” Service-learning is designed to not only have a positive impact on the community, and not only to support student academic learning, but also compel students to a lifetime commitment to community and service involvement. There is no question that Dr. Cohen’s service-learning class has this effect.
Dr. Cohen’s dedication to service-learning and commitment has led him to be named the faculty fellow for the School of Science and Technology for 2019-2022. In this role, Dr. Cohen supports other faculty within his school with their community engagement and works to further institutionalize community engagement at SSU. We in the CCE appreciate Dr. Cohen’s leadership.