What We’re About

At it’s CORE, Community-Oriented Regeneration Efforts Crew is dedicated to community, first and foremost. We strive to create a microclimate of community power that we can build upon, in order to more effectively extend that energy to the rest of campus.

We are a community resource by definition, providing invaluable college services such as campus-wide composting, environmental and social justice education, running the community Freestore, providing reusable plate rentals for campus events, and much more. 

CORE Crew builds community so that we can inspire a sense of collective responsibility and accountability to each other among all students, staff, faculty and administrators at WWC.

I love my crew because I feel as though we are doing a job that is integral to both the campus’ basic functions but is also crucial to the college’s sustainability efforts. The crew provided me with education and information about easy lifestyle changes that can make a huge difference.

Lee Williams

Supervisor Spotlight

Elias Goldstein ’22 (They/Them)

As a cultural anthropology major and energetic CORE crew member, Elias’ passion for understanding the inner workings of the college community’s waste and behavior patterns set them up perfectly for the crew supervisor position when it became available post-graduation. 

Elias’ loves CORE Crew because everybody on the crew has banded together to become a very tight-knit community, all driven by the same cause: to lead the charge for the college and the community to hold strong to their sustainability mission and commitments. Also, they love picking through 100lb buckets of food waste to find treasures, most notably: plastic forks (and an occasional rubber ducky)!

In their free time, Elias likes swimming in the Swannanoa River, messing around with bugs, and playing “Big Phil” in their Corporate Dystopian-themed performance-art band called Toadhand.

What You’ll Learn

You’ll spend years working alongside your peers with the mentorship of your supervisors.  Part of the experience of work at Warren Wilson is guided critical reflection, which helps ensure that you achieve both your own educational goals as well as our Common Learning Outcomes. These intentional learning outcomes distinguish our Work Program, giving it focus and relevancy that set it apart from a federal work-study or your average part-time job. 

Our Common Learning Outcomes:

• Professionalism & Work Ethic: accountability, effective work habits, punctuality, dependability, time management, integrity, and commitment to the well-being of the community.
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: working with available resources to creatively address issues and solve problems, and gaining confidence to make decisions.
• Communication: the ability to convey and receive information effectively with intentionality, honesty, and confidence in both speech and writing.
• Collaboration & Teamwork: actively collaborate with peers to achieve common goals, Distribute labor fairly, and hold each other accountable as committed members of a group.
• Civic Identity: understanding your active influence within the community and how your decisions directly impact the work around you.

In addition to our Common Learning Outcomes, each crew in the Work Program identifies crew-specific goals for learning and performance. These are reviewed with you each semester. Your crew-specific learning goals outline skills and abilities your supervisor will teach you during the semester.

Some of our CORE Crew Learning Goals include:

• Learn the ins and outs of Aerated Static pile composting
• Run and operate heavy machinery such as our tractor and compost mixer
• Develop and implement community education and outreach opportunities
• Operate the campus Freestore
• Gain expertise in specialized recycling
• Build intentional community based on foundations of authenticity, solidarity and comradery
• Experience Warren Wilson College from “behind the scenes”, seeing the inner workings of the campus food system
• Learn about food waste contaminants and proper disposal
• Build off campus community partnerships
• Advocate for and hold the community accountable to its social and environmental justice goals