Students in the Northwest Mississippi Community College Environmental Sciences Organization (ESO) on the Senatobia campus take their commitment to the environment seriously - they are working together with volunteers and the Northwest Senatobia Faculty Association in the Adopt-A Highway program and in local projects to clean up their environment.

"The ESO is a student-run organization that is committed to increasing public awareness of environmental issues and performing local activities that help the community," said Bud Donahou, science instructor and the group's faculty sponsor. According to Donahou, the ESO has adopted a two-mile section of Highway 4. "We pick-up the trash every three months and have for the past year," Donahou said.

Most recently, the group completed a clean up project at Norfleet Park in Senatobia. Dakota Hamblen, a freshman from Senatobia is the group's vice-president. She and other students, faculty members and volunteers worked on the Norfleet Park project.

According to Hamblen, she came up with the idea and presented it to the group last fall. "We wanted to wait to do it (the clean-up) until the weather got better so the park would be in good shape when the children started to come back," Hamblen said. She said they got the City of Senatobia's approval before they went to work.

Work in the park included cleaning the jungle gym, swings, and the park signs. They painted poles and put new mulch under the slides and the sign.

Hamblen said that the group plans to hold a bake sale and tree plantings in the future, as well as cleaning up an area near the soccer field on the campus, and planting a garden.

Donahou and Dr. Carol Cleveland, who are both Biology instructors at Northwest, are the sponsors of the group.