Saint Rose celebrates Arbor Day by planting trees with Albany schoolchildren

The College of Saint Rose President Marcia White and Mary Cosgrove, a retired Saint Rose professor of science education and problem-based learning, joined students from the Thomas O’Brien Academy of Science and Technology (TOAST), Albany city and school dignitaries, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in planting 45 trees in Lincoln Park on Arbor Day. 

The Arbor Day Foundation recognizes Albany as a designated Tree City USA and Saint Rose as a designated Tree Campus Higher Education. The April 29 event was part of the work cities and higher education institutions with those designations do.  

White and Cosgrove, who now serves as coordinator of Albany Goes Green, joined students and teachers from the Thomas S. O’Brien Academy of Science and Technology (TOAST); Kaweeda G. Adams, City School District of Albany superintendent; Kathy Sheehan, Albany mayor; Mari Shopsis, Albany Fund for Education executive director; Sergio Panunzio, commissioner of the City of Albany Department of General Services; Sean Mahar and Gloria Van Duyne, both of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation; and other environmental advocates. 

Art Flynn, a 1995 graduate of Saint Rose and veteran science teacher with the district, provided a lesson in the importance of trees in the urban ecosystem. 

Saint Rose has been involved with Albany Goes Green since its formation by the Albany Fund for Education in 2008. The purpose is to improve the environmental education of students in the City School District of Albany. Saint Rose students in Science 100 and 200, which are part of the requirements for childhood education and special education majors at Saint Rose, participate in the tree plantings as examples of a fun outdoor science lesson they could teach that would offer future science research opportunities and assist in the fight against climate change. 

“Not only does this project educate the next generation of students and adults about the importance of caring for the environment, for The College of Saint Rose, it is at our core,” White said. “It is our core value of caring for our neighbors and our neighborhood.” 

Saint Rose is one of only 19 New York State colleges or universities and 392 campuses across the country that has the Arbor Day Foundation’s “Recognized Green College” designation. The College has been a designated Tree Campus since 2017. In the last year, Saint Rose planted eight new trees on its grounds.