At the beginning of September, our first-year students in the Ingénieur Civil des Mines (ICM) program completed their Integration Weekend (WANA: welcome weekend for new arrivals). This was an opportunity for them to get to know each other, discover Mines Saint-Etienne, and find their initial bearings.
This year, one of the objectives of these days was to raise awareness among our new students about societal, solidarity, and environmental issues through community projects present in our region. In groups supervised by second-year students, on Thursday, September 1st, they provided assistance to a dozen associations in Saint-Etienne with their cultural, solidarity, or environmental projects.
Environment and Biodiversity
Second-year students from the civic project “Ecoute-moi,” the voice of nature, which equipped Montaud Park this year with podcast stations, invited the LPO to lead an audio tour of the park to introduce new students to the diversity of birds in the city.
The student residence vegetable garden managed by the student association Respire welcomed about ten volunteers who worked to double its surface area, which increasingly resembles a permaculture space.
A Benjes hedge—an ecological structure consisting of stacking dead wood branches, roots, and twigs horizontally between wooden or metal stakes up to one meter high to improve biodiversity—was built in the park, already designated as an LPO refuge and located behind the historic buildings of Mines Saint-Etienne.
Practical workshops also enabled the creation of birdhouses and bat shelters that will be installed on the historic site at 158 cours Fauriel.
Other groups spent a day with the teams from the cooperative “De la Ferme au Quartier,” which organizes the sale of local agricultural products through short supply chains, the urban permaculture association “La Ferme en Chantier,” which creates shared gardens and offers educational support, or with ONF agents to learn about forest management.
Social and Solidarity Engagement
In terms of societal and solidarity engagement, the engineering students shared daily life and participated in activities within the following organizations: Emmaüs, Petites Sœurs des Pauvres, Maison Solidaire, Amicale Laïque du Crêt de Roc, Crefad Loire, Le Relais, and Ocivélo.
For example, a group of students supervised by the association Ocivélo repaired and refurbished bicycles and scooters that were delivered by the cooperative “Les Coursiers stéphanois” to the association “Renaitre,” which fights against extreme poverty.
