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These are earlier announcements that we just could not part with.
Environmental Studies Students visit Vietnam. See their stories at umvietnamstudy.wordpress.com and www.climatecentral.org.
Earth Day's 40th anniversary was celebrated in Missoula with many earth service projects on April 17 & 24, 2010 (stream & prairie clean ups & restoration, recycling relays, building bikes, digging new gardens & more. One intrepid group rode their bikes from event to event in the Ecopentathalon, see below. Mother Earth thanks all the Earth Service workers.
Earth Service Day workers controlling their gag reflexes while sorting recyclables at the UM Recycling shed.
2ND annual Northwest Real Food Youth Convergence: UM Missoula, February 12-14, 2010.
Many Environmental Studies students helped bring this event to Montana. The Real Food Challenge is both a campaign and a network to increase the purchase of real food on college and university campuses, with the national goal of 20% real food by 2020. Real food means nutritious, sustainably grown food, as locally produced as possible. The RFC Youth Convergence featured a variety of workshops for youth leaders in the food movement.
Watershed Health Clinic Stream Team Debuts on YouTube
The UM Watershed Clinic's Stream Team has covered a lot of Montana territory in the past 9 years as they helped the Montana Department of Environmental Quality characterize Montana's streams and lakes. A few recent stream encounters are recorded on this youtube video, starring Amy Edgerton, Katie Makarowski, & Nebojsa Vlajic, and this video, starring Jonathan Leiman, Dan Hatley & Kelley Garrison. The Montana landscape stars in both. Don't you wish you were there?
UM Environmental Studies Students Report on their Role at Copenhagen Climate Negotiations
Three Environmental Studies students, left to right below, Melissa Hayes (Blog), Yaicha Bookhout (Blog, Twitter) and Zach Brown (Blog), were credentialed by SustainUS and attended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meetings in Copenhagen, Denmark from December 7-18, 2009. The students were supported by the Wiancko Family Foundation, the UM Provost's Office and an anonymous foundation. The students chronicled the negotiations, their experiences and the actions of non-governmental parties in blogs and by twitter.
For Day of the Dead, Nov. 2, 2009, this mandala was created in Missoula's Caras Park by community members including some EVST alums and students. The nontoxic colored sawdust was later composted. This is part of a Global Mandala of 32 nations. To learn more or to contribute towards the cost of making a short film on Missoula's Manadala, go to www.missoulamandala.wordpress.com.
EVST Alum Recognized as Eco-Daredevil
EVST alum Katie Makarowski ('09) has been selected as one of two recipients of the second-annual Eco-Daredevil award. The national award was inspired by Evel Knievel, the daredevil, who hitchhiked from Montana to Washington DC with a huge bull elk rack to protest the culling of elk in Yellowstone in 1961. The award was created to recognize young people who take risks and make a difference for the environment. The nomination letters told of her life long environmental activism, her tenacity in dealing with reluctant participants in environmental studies -- from cows to bureaucrats -- her carless, meatless, reuse-oriented life style. More about the award here. Congratulations, Katie!
Congratulations 2009 Graduates! Keep making a difference! Scroll down for more pix.
Congratulations Outstanding Seniors of 2009!
Shannon Kuhn, Martha Sample, Rustin Mitchell, Brant Cebulla, Saara Snow, Belinda Hays
More Awards for EVSTers
Congratulations to Phil Condon and Jessie Davie for being named the Missoula Sustainable Business Council (SBC) Advocates of the year for 2008 for work on the UM Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
EVST undergrad Laura Mahoney recently won the Outstanding Volunteer of the Year Award from the UM Office of Civic Engagement for her volunteer work with homeWORD.
At UM's 116th birthday party on February 12, 2009, EVST grad student Jessie Davie, ASUM's sustainability coordinator, received the ASUM Student Service Award. AND EVST professor Phil Condon received the UM Panther Award (doesn't he look like a panther?) No wait.. it's the UM Pantzer Award! Which means he's a great humanitarian! Congratulations Jessie & Phil.
UM's Green Initiatives
UM made some important strides towards sustainability in 2008, often under the leadership of EVST students and faculty who serve on UM Sustainability & Recycling Committees. UM hired a full time Recycling Coordinator and a full time Sustainability Coordinator (see here). In addition, UM student government has a student sustainability coordinator, and Dining Services has a sustainability coordinator. UM is making more use of green building design principles, and the new Native American Studies Center will be LEED-certified. A Greenhouse Gas Inventory was conducted (by Jessie Davie of EVST) to identify where UM could best reduce its carbon emissions, and UM will be working hard to meet the MT Governor's call for all state agencies to reduce energy use by 20% by 2010. In the area of teaching, UM will be offering a climate change minor and is also initiating a Green Thread Curriculum to weave sustainability throughout the UM curriculum. EVST students provided UM with information on green cleaning products and initiated a program to remodel some UM housing to provide demonstration sites in green living (see UM FLAT).
For more on Greening UM (including contact info for UM sustainability workers), see www.umt.edu/greeningUM.
Congratulations Karen: EVST's very own Karen Hurd received the 2008 UM Outstanding Service to Students Award. Much deserved. Drop by the EVST office and say Congratulations! And come to the Awards Reception in the UC Ballroom on April 23, 4-6pm.
Outstanding Students: On April 22, 2008, the following EVST students were recognized at the UM Student Leadership awards -- Cori Ash, Shannon Kuhn, Paige Browning and Kendra Kallevig (who won the award in fall 2007). In addition, Paul Kerman, EVST graduate student and UM Recycling Intern was recognized along with other outstanding student workers at UM, at a reception at the Davidson's Honors College on April 15.
EVST Undergrads Rule: 3 Udall scholarship winners this year (2008)! Congratulations to Cleo Woelfe-Erskine, Shannon Kuhn, and Whitney Gaskill. UM continues to have more Udall winners than any other school. Only 2 others (Cornell & American Univ) had 3 winners this year.
EVST undergrad Andrew Erickson won a Truman Scholarship (a national merit based scholarship). Congratulations, Andy!
Asbestos Ordinance: In February 2008, the Missoula City Council passed an asbestos ordinance that came directly out of the professional paper recommendations of EVST graduate student Holly Truitt. Missoula had the worst compliance in Montana with state asbestos regulations. Buildings were being demolished without asbestos inspections. Now we can all breathe easier, literally. Big snaps to Holly!
EVSTers Win National Essay Contest on Sustainable Energy
Three UM students have placed # 3 in Johnson Controls' national essay competition - Tomorrow's Energy Ambassadors, Managers, and Scholars (TEAMS) competition. Their essay was selected over essays from Teams at Duke, Purdue, Emory and Boston University (and many more). The brilliant essay team from UM includes: ASUM President Dustin Leftridge (EVST/Geology), Jessie Davie (EVST grad student & ASUM sustainability coordinator), and Emily Peters (UM Facilities Services sustainability coordinator). Students were asked to write a letter to the 2008 US Presidential Candidates, presenting the need for a sustainable energy strategy for the US and challenging the candidates to develop and state their positions and action strategies to achieve energy sustainability. More on the competition here.
Congratulations to Vicki Watson on receiving Montana Natural History Center's 2007 Nature Educator Award. Well deserved!
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