Making the event an annual tradition, the Office of Sustainability highlighted student passions while hosting its second Student Sustainability Summit on Feb. 20.
Whether attendees were presenting or listening, the student-organized event featured a collage of ideas. Together, students worked to uncover tactics to ensure sustainability reaches every aspect of their lives. According to graduate assistant for experiential education Makayla Vasek, over the four-hour summit, 75 students attended to learn about topics ranging from textile waste to environmental justice.
"I hope we can, with this summit, be able to show more of the truth about sustainability, what goes into it, what can you do as an individual or as a group to make sustainability a goal in your daily life or in your educational career path,” fourth-year chemical engineering student and Sustainable Carolina food recovery member Saryu Rath said.
Associate director for the Office of Sustainability Jessie McNevin said the event serves as a welcoming opportunity for students of all backgrounds to come together and discover a community that shares similar passions.
"I think, at times, with anything that's to the scale that sustainability and climate is, it could feel like this is too complicated,” McNevin said. “What can I do? I’m just one individual. I think having events like this or being involved in sustainability-related clubs gives you that reminder that it's not just you, and there's a lot of people that care in the power of working together.”
Creating community
Although the event was not initially planned to become a tradition, McNevin said the students' response to last year's summit shifted the organization's plan.
"What surprised me last year was even those that were planning on leaving early stayed, and they said they were having a good time,” McNevin said. “They stayed the full time, which is, I think, a big ask ... Their surveys also said it was 100% strongly agreed that this should be offered again in the future. We couldn't argue with that.”
While helping to organize the execution of the event, Rath said making the summit an annual tradition was essential to keeping hope alive on campus.
“Sustainability and climate change are still very much stigmatized,” Rath said. “It's actively being scrutinized right now. Having a summit like this is very important to educate the students at a university where people come here to learn and to study, to educate them about the right information and understand where the facts lie.”
Hallie Cole is a fourth-year international business and marketing student as well as a Sustainable Carolina food recovery network team member. Cole said the summit aimed to bring students of diverse majors together with the same common passion for sustainability.
"I was a little nervous because I figured that it would be mainly Sustainable Carolina people here today, but I love seeing people that are not in Sustainable Carolina because it's really important to expand sustainability beyond just the quality of the organization,” Cole said. “It's meant for everyone.”
The organization hoped to connect students in a variety of fields with hands-on workshops. Allyson Raynes, fourth-year environmental science student and project coordinator for the Sustainable Carolina zero waste team, highlighted this while leading her workshop, where she taught students to make DIY air fresheners using baking soda and essential oils.
"Being sustainable is also you being creative,” Raynes said. “You can do so many different things with sustainability ... Knowing that you can be creative with it and reusing waste that could have gone to landfills and making it into something amazing is a really cool opportunity.”
Second-year English and psychology student Merrik Moriarty attended the DIY air freshener workshop. While not a STEM major herself, Moriarty is a member of Sustainable Carolina and said she enjoyed that the summit's invitation was open to all students.
"I think it's really important to get people involved in hands-on things,” Moriarty said. “Especially where they have an aspect of control of what they're learning and are able to learn about what they're interested in, people here will go home and tell their roommates about it and share the word of sustainability.”
Student action
Students decided to create some changes to this year's summit, including to add focused discussions on topics they feel are timely to sustainability today.
“We were trying to do something a bit more career-focused as well because there's a lot of fearmongering about what's happening where sustainability and environmental science gets very scrutinized,” Rath said. “Focusing on the careers and what's possible, it gives students the accessibility that this is a future career path and a viable option that is important to society.”
Another new feature was the addition of workshops for different levels of familiarity. According to McNevin, these workshops helped students navigate the summit and allowed presenters to create a target audience.
"Some people like to dip their toes in,” Cole said. “When they may not have such a definite idea about what sustainability even means, it's good to have a sustainability 101... Whether it be intermediate, beginner or just options, what exactly you want to do with the workshops.”
While just concluding its second summit, McNevin said the organization is already hoping to host the Southeastern Student Sustainability Conference next year in honor of Sustainable Carolina’s 20th anniversary in 2027.
“It all started with the community garden back there, which was started by Green Quad residents in 2007 with the idea of, ‘Hey, there’s this grassy area. Can we try to grow some produce?’” McNevin said. “It's evolved now to the leadership program and the outreach it has today. I love the idea of hosting a regional conference to celebrate 20 years.”
The Office of Sustainability saw a 55% increase in sustainability-related student participation last semester in comparison to the fall before. McNevin said these numbers are an encouraging hope for the campus's community.
"I feel like there's definitely something brewing here on campus,” McNevin said. “We're really excited to serve as a home base for students that care about the environment.”
Rath said continuing to host the summit gives students a platform to fight against misinformation and for sustainability to reach beyond today.
“If anyone who feels hopeless in terms of how things with environmental science are going, I just want to say that that's very real and understandable,” Rath said. “Your action, whatever action you're doing, is important no matter how small it is. Continue having sustainability as a mindset.”