City College was awarded a statewide recognized accolade for its green-friendly campus at the beginning of October during the Green California Community College Summit, held in Pasadena from Oct. 7 to 9.

Dean of Educational Programs Doug Hersh went to Pasadena along with Director of Facilities Julie Hendricks and Director of Purchasing Rob Morales. Aside from winning the award, the three also conducted a presentation on affective grant proposal writing.

“The way you win grants is by winning other grants,” explained Hersh.

Hersh explained how Green Technology contacted City College six months ago with an open letter asking all of California’s community colleges if any of them had any environmentally focused grant proposals in the works.

That’s when Hersh got together with Construction Academy Director Dr. Patrick Foster and Dr. Mike Gonella, chair of the environmental horticulture program, and began brainstorming. With the help of Cheryl Dettrick, who Hersh refers to as a ‘grant development guru,’ the team developed the plan for an interdisciplinary program that trains students in the new field of ‘sustainability audits,’ where construction sites or properties considering modifications have their total carbon footprint assessed.

That won recognition from the CCCCO and a two-year grant worth $711,436. City College’s is the first program of its kind in the region. Then this month, the school co-wrote with other colleges and won an additional grant, this time good for 18 months and worth $378,860. “We wrote the lion’s share of that grant, so we got the lion’s share of that award,” said Hersh.

Winning the Green Campus award award is “a feather in our cap,” and “a wonderful vote of confidence,” said Hersh.

“You build success upon success.”