It's such a privilege to work with our students -- the environmental leaders of today and tomorrow! Congratulations to this year's WE Lead Student Environmental Leaders, Marina Theberge and Rebecca Zerlin! Both have made exceptional contributions to Unity College and to the larger world. They were honored at a reception and a ceremony organized by Unity's Experiential Program Coordinator, Nancy Vosburgh-Zane.
In April, our local community hosted several internationally-renowned visitors, including Dr. Lara Hansen, the
2014 WE Lead award winner. Dr. Hansen, who served on the
2007 Nobel Prize-winning IPCC team, is currently the founding director of
EcoAdapt, a non-profit organization that provides support for climate change adaptation.
We were also privileged to host a production of
Kaiulani Lee's one-woman play,
Can't Scare Me: The Story of Mother Jones at the UCCPA. Kaiulani is well known for her portrayal of Rachel Carson in the one-woman stage and film work,
A Sense of Wonder. In both cases, Kaiulani has brought new meaning to the term "one-woman": she not only performs both roles, she researched and wrote both scripts. Kaiulani will be honored this year by the Audubon Women in Conservation for her work on
A Sense of Wonder, which "reminds the audience of the monumental stature and influence of Rachel Carson, of how precious our natural world is, and of just how dramatic and difficult the challenges can be for those who stand to protect the truth."
The night before the play, Kaiulani attended a dinner with students and members of the community at Unity House. She spent much of her time talking with students. There's Marina again on the right, along with recent grad Zach Wigham, Environmental Writing major Josiah Coyle, and Summer Nay, who studies Adventure Therapy.
Community members also engaged in vigorous dialogue about a host of topics, as captured in this thoughtful moment between writing coach
Kathrin Seitz and poet-activist
Susie O'Keeffe.
As the semester here at Unity comes to a close, I'm reviewing final review assignments from my section of Environmental Issues and Insights. Many of the students in that section expressed gratitude for the opportunity to read Rachel Carson's seminal work,
Silent Spring, because it helped them to understand current environmental debates
. In the words of one student, Emilee Reynolds, "I am better able to understand the scientific side of issues like GMO foods from reading Silent Spring." As usual, I am very proud of our students' insights, and I look forward to the new generation of activist women!
On April 18, Stephen and I welcomed a record-breaking group of
prospective students to the Unity campus. After a morning and afternoon
of immersion activities with current students and faculty, we held a reception
for prospective Honors Program students to meet with me and co-director Aimee Phillippi, and a vibrant group from our current Honors cohort.
Having so many current Honors students available made things easy
for me and Aimee -- all we had to do was find out the interests of the newbies,
and then introduce them to current students who knew something about their
interests -- and those interests are quite diverse!
Our most excited current student may have been Nick Newcomb, who
high-fived two students who, like him, are investigating the Earth and
Environmental Science major. Captive Wildlife Care and Education majors
enjoyed telling their stories to those interested in pursuing that major, and
talking about the small animal room. Wildlife Bio folks talked about their
experiences on projects like the Unity College Bear Study.
Meanwhile, Stephen answered questions from parents about
where the college is headed, and how Unity prepares students for careers in the
green economy and for success in the knowledge economy.
And thankfully, it was a beautiful day! I loved seeing
people gathered out on the patio again, enjoying the sun and the birds, and the beauty that surrounds us at Unity College.
