Shippesnburg University professor Sean Cornell was surprised to be recognized among Shippensburg’s most prominent businesses and community leaders last week with the 2025 Chamber Common Ground Award. 

The honor reflects years of his work connecting the university to the wider community through teaching, watershed restoration, sustainability efforts and public environmental advocacy.

Cornell, an associate professor of geography and earth science at the university and president of the Middle Spring Watershed Association, received the award at the 86th annual Shippensburg Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Awards Recognition Breakfast on March 19 in the Tuscarora Room at Reisner Dining Hall. He described it as recognition for “a university member providing exceptional service to the community.”

“You never expect to be recognized for an award,” Cornell said. 

When he is not wading through water collecting trash or leading public meetings, he is in the classroom teaching geology, oceanography and environmental science that links student learning with local streams, restoration projects, food systems, sustainability work and public education on environmental risk. 

He said the common thread in all of it is simple — helping people learn more about their environment and waterways. 

“That’s what connects all of it. Teaching. Watershed work. Public service. Sustainability. It all comes back to helping people understand what’s happening around them, what the risks are, why stewardship matters, and how they can be part of the solution,” Cornell said. 

Cornell said that approach shapes how he sees his work as a university professor. Through the Middle Spring Watershed Association’s partnership with the university, he said students can work on environmental issues close to home while gaining real-world experience.

“That’s where being a university professor matters,” Cornell said. “That’s where a lot of expertise can be brought in.” 

He said students benefit by stepping into work that is practical and local. 

“Our students can work on real-world problems in their backyard,” said Cornell. “Our students can build their resumes by volunteering and participating with the watershed association.”

He said that reach extends beyond the university itself. Cornell estimated the programs he helps run engage “almost a thousand, if not more than a thousand kids every year” through stream-related work, science nights and other outreach efforts supported by university students.

Much of that work runs through the watershed association, whose mission Cornell described as twofold.

“Educate and improve. So we’re educating the community, reducing risk,” he said. 

He said that a stewardship mindset is something people develop when they understand why resources matter and why they need to care.

On the ground, that has meant years of restoration projects. Cornell said the association’s work includes creek cleanups, streambank repair, buffer planting, spring rehabilitation and habitat work at sites across the watershed.

“[Our] secondary mission is to restore, repair, preserve,” Cornell said. “Obviously the basic work is cleaning up trash. We do creek clean ups throughout the year, but then there are restoration projects.”

Describing the most recent project near Branch Creek, Cornell said crews have built a stream-bottom habitat, increased water depth and improved stream diversity by regrading banks, placing boulders and installing cross veins that oxygenate water.

He said other efforts have included mud sills to protect banks from erosion, streambank work near the Little League ball fields, riparian buffer planting, Dykeman Spring rehabilitation and testing and work tied to Burd Run and tributaries across western Cumberland County and northern Franklin County.

“The mission continues on campus too,” Cornell said. “We just celebrated the 10th anniversary of the campus farm at its current location.” 

Through the university, he has connected students to the Pennsylvania Farm Show and worked on projects at Reisner Dining Hall to reduce food waste and repurpose scraps into fertilizer or animal feed. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he also produced StewardSHIP programming, including a home gardening video designed to keep students engaged with practical sustainability while they could not experience hands-on in person learning.

Cornell said another major part of his life is public advocacy. He has been in numerous articles for municipal board meetings, township supervisor meetings, zoning hearings and DEP proceedings. 

After, he brings that information back to homeowners and community members. That has included discussions about PFAS and other environmental concerns, as well as development issues such as data centers.

“I don’t want people to be put at risk if I have the knowledge to at least educate them on what those risks are,” Cornell said. “They can make the choice. Clearly, they can. But I at least want them to be informed.”

He said that sense of responsibility goes back to his upbringing on a farm in upstate New York and the examples set by his family.

He said his mother taught him a lasting lesson about service. “If somebody needs the shirt off your back, you give them the shirt off your back. If you can help, it’s your duty to help,” Cornell said.

Now, Cornell said, that same ethic guides both his work in the community and his role at the university.

“Yeah. I’m a dad,” Cornell said. “And I want, not just for my three children, but for my university children, I want them to have a better future. I think that’s our responsibility.”

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