Author Archives: Jenn

Earth Week Events!

LEAP Photo Contest
Description: LEAP invites all students, faculty, and staff to participate in its first Earth Week photo contest! The contest seeks photograph submissions that spotlight the natural environment, such as wildlife or the landscape. The contest will be open until midnight on Saturday, April 18th. The top 12 photos will be featured in a 2010 calendar. http://moodle.lafayette.edu/course/view.php?id=3122

KEYNOTE: U.S. Environmental Policy, Kate Sheppard from Grist Magazine
Date: Friday April 17th
Location: Hugel 103
Time: 12 PM (Free Food!)
Description: Kate Sheppard from Grist Magazine (Ithaca ’06) will be here to discuss United Sates environmental policy being shaped by our legislators in Washington D.C.

Environment & Religion, Rev. John Colatch, Rabbi Daniel Swartz, Professor Herman Tull
Date: Monday April 20th
Location: Kirby 104
Time: 6 PM (Free Food!)
Description: College Reverend John Colatch, Rabbi Daniel Swartz of Temple Hesed Scranton, PA, and Visiting Professor of Religious Studies Herman Tull will be here to discuss how the environmental movement has been shaped by religion.

Environmental Poster Display
Date: Wednesday April 22nd
Location: Farinon
Time: 12 PM
Description: Come join your fellow students as they display their environmentally-themed research posters in Farinon.

Earth Day Celebration
Date: Wednesday April 22nd (Rain Date: April 23rd)
Location: The Quad
Time: 4 PM
Description: Come join LEAP as we celebrate Earth Day on the Quad! We will have a solar panel display, compost display, crafts, Frisbee, volleyball, WRJH, and homemade snacks!

Movie Night in Farinon: Planet Earth
Date: Thursday April 23rd
Location: Farinon Atrium
Time: 9 PM
Description: LEAP will conclude the celebration by having a movie screening of Planet Earth in the Farinon atrium. All are welcome to watch this exciting movie.

Farm Auction!

dsc00481This past Saturday, Professor Dave Brandes, Professor John Wilson, their sons Owen and Jack, and myself went to the 25th Annual Hilltop Sales and Service Spring Auction.  We got there at 9AM sharp and it was freeezing and windy, but we got some neat stuff!dsc004882

Here’s what we got:

-Wheelbarrow $6

-Lawnmower (old fashioned bladed kind) $2

-Planting pots of all sizes $2

-Auctioneer making fun of me for being excited about the lawn mower..priceless

Total: $10.60!! 🙂

The auction was a lot of fun and we got some great stuff for cheap.  Owen in particular loved the all the tractors!  And both Owen and Jack braved the cold weather extremely well!dsc00483

Now we need to find shovels, hoes, and stuff at another auction and hopefully we can get a great price again!  If anyone knows of good places to buy implements for cheap, feel free to leave a comment here.

Jenn

Dickinson Farm Director, Jenn Halpin’s Visit!

Jenn Halpin came today and gave a presentation about the Dickinson Farm program.  It was a GREAT presentation and I think it really got everyone excited about our gardens here.  She was here all afternoon for visits and meetings. Here’s what we did:dsc00312

First, Jenn H. arrived and gave a brown bag presentation in Hugel 103.

Then, we had lunch with Professors Dave Brandes, Art Kney, Andy Smith and Annette Diorio at Gilberts for a Q & A for them!

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Then, we had a meeting with Dining Services, including Joe Binotto and Bob Meyer where we talked about serving vegetables in the dining halls.

Finally, we met with garden team students interested in helping starting the garden for more Q&A.

It was a great learning experience and we’re so grateful Jenn H. came and gave us advice!  Now we’ll have to go out there and visit sometime!

Jenn

Materials are Arriving!

Rain Water Collection barrels

News: Some of the supplies have begun arriving including the deer fence and the two 1,000 gallon tanks for the rainwater collection system.  Thanks so much to Bob Chunko and the rest of plant ops staff that helped us unload these things!

Soon to be arriving: seeds ordered from Seeds of Change.

And Prof. John Wilson is providing the posts for the deer fence that will be completed soon!

So exciting! 🙂

-Jenn

PS. I’ve added pictures to the site now.  Some from the conferences I’ve described below and some of the future site at Metzgar.  I’ll try my best to keep it updated!

Garden Speaker Coming March 30th!!

ATTENTION!

Jenn Halpin, the Dickinson College Farm Manager, will be coming to give a brown bag presentation on Monday, March 30th at Noon in Hugel 103.  She’ll be talking about the VERY successful Dickinson farm program!  Come check it out! Lunch is provided.

4th Annual University Hunger Summit!

On Feb. 27-March 1,  Professor Art Kney and I traveled to Auburn University in Alabama for the 4th Annual University Hunger Summit Conference. We were invited to present and sit on a panel discussing the “sustainable food loop”.

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We attended events on Friday and presented on Saturday.  This conference was also a great experience and really inspiring!  Lafayette can work on local hunger issues by working with dining services and perhaps donating our excess food?  Something we might want to think about!

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LVAIC Conference!

Lafayette students involved with SEES and LEAP presented posters on Friday, Feb. 20th at the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges Sustainability Conference.

There was some great speakers and break out sessions including keynote speaker John L. Cusack, the founder of Gifford Park Associates, Sodexho representatives, and Matt Steiman the Biodiesel Plant Manager and Assistant Farm Manager of the Dickinson College farm!

There was also a poster contest for students to display various campus sustainability efforts!  We had the biggest showing of any of the colleges with 9 posters and 11 students present at the conference!  The poster I presented entitled “Creating a Sustainable Food Loop at Academic Insititutions through Food Waste Composting and Organic Vegetable Production” placed second in the student poster contest.  Yay Lafayette!

Click here to see an article on the Lafayette website about it!

Jenn

Clinton Global Initiative Conference!

On Feb. 13th, Christina Chen and I went to the Clinton Global Initiative University Conference in Austin, Texas.  The garden project is funded by a CGI-U Outstanding Commitment Award, but we received the grant after the conference last year, so we applied to go to this one!

Here’s a quick run-down of the events:
Feb. 13th, Fri:

5:00PM: We arrived in Austin (from Philly), took the shuttle to our hotel to drop our stuff and took a shuttle to the University of Texas campus for the opening night events!

4:00-5:30PM: “Making a Difference on Campus: A Call to Action” Opening Remarks by William Powers, President of UT.  Followed by panel discussion with:

  • Bill Clinton (the former President!!),
  • Paul Bell (president of Dell),
  • Mambidzeni Madzivire (grad student at Mayo in biomedical engineering),
  • Blake Mycoskie (founder of TOMS shoes), and Natalie Portman (yes, the actress!!!).

Unfortunately we MISSED this session (because our flight was too late!), but we heard it was great!

6:00-7:00PM: “The Future of Food” More opening remarks by Bill himself.  Then other program partipants include..

  • Will Allen (Chief executive officer of Growing Power)
  • Emma Clippinger (grad student, Brown U)
  • Peter McPherson (president of National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges)
  • Morgan Spurlock (Film Director–and the guy from Supersize Me!!!)
  • Roy Steiner (director of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)

Phew..we made it to this discussion!  This one was AMAZING.  The main message (in my opinion) was that campuses need to focus on their food production and waste.  Schools should food-waste compost (check!) and grow their own food (almost check!).  It was so awesome to hear these very smart (and famous!) people talking about how it is important to be doing what Lafayette is in fact doing!  It was an amazing feeling and I have to say it made me so proud to be a part of this project. 😀

7:30-9:30: Social Reception.  Students, faculty, and everyone attending the conference had dinner and (very yummy) desserts and mingled.

Sat. Feb. 14th: (Happy V-day!)

9:00-10:00AM: Plenary Session “Turning Economic Obstacles into Opportunity”

  • Paul Begala (president of Hat Creek Enterprises)
  • Scott Cowen (president of Tulane U)
  • Carlo DiMarco (VP, University relations and online strategy, mtvU)
  • John Dorsey (co-founder, faceAIDS)
  • Margaret McKenna (president of the Walmart Foundation)
  • Zainab Salbi (president and chief exec officer of Women for Women International)

Well, this one was interesting and quite timely with the current state of the economy.  It was quite interesting to hear from the pres. of Walmart, especially since they fund much of the Commitment Awards given.

10:30-12:00PM: “Working Sessions”!  During this time, students and faculty were divided into sessions of their personal interests.  Christina and I went to separate ones.  I went to the Energy and Climate Change one and Christina attended the Global Health Session.   It was a great time to talk with other students, faculty, university presidents (!), and Clinton Global U organizers on a personal level.

12:30-2:00PM: Lunchtime Meetups and such: time for everyone to mingle and talk about their commitments.

2:30-4:00PM: “Skill Session: Putting your Commitment to Action”

4:30-5:30PM: CGI-U Exchange: more mingle time to talk about commitments and network!

6:00-7:00PM: Summation and Closing Address by Bill Clinton.  and panel speakers:

  • Nnamdi Asomugha (Oakland Raiders Quaterback)
  • Matthew McConaughey (Yes, the actor!!!! and my valentine hah)
  • Marie Tillman (chairman of the board of the Pat Tillman Foundation)

This panel challenged the audience to continue our commitments and take what we learned over the past two days and apply it to the real world.  Hmm.. well, I think we’re on the right track, right? 🙂

7:30-9:30PM: Dinner Reception.  This was our last chance to really mingle.  It was so great to talk to inspiring students from all over the world and hear their commitments.  After dinner, there was a comedian..

  • John Oliver (Yes, from the Daily Show with John Stewart!!!)

He was HILARIOUS.  He commented on how the audience of CGI-U students were more like his parents than any college group he’d performed for on a Saturday night..hahaha, so true.

Feb. 15th, Sunday:

9:00-1:00PM: Service Project.  CGI-U students participated in various service projects around the Austin area.  Christina and I worked on cleaning a local creek (which really needed cleaning!!).  It was lots of fun and one last chance to see our fellow comittment-makers!

The conference in review:

It was an AMAZING experience all together.  I’m really glad Christina and I had the opportunity to attend.  Talking with other students about our gardening and composting projects seemed to really inspire others.  We learned from other students about their commitments and ways to improve our own campus.  One student named Jared worked with the UT campus to donate wasted food to local food kitchens.  This is something we could definately work on!

Thank you to the Lafayette ARC, Prof. Mylon, Brandes, Kortyna, Kney, and student Mike Handzo for making our trip possible!!

Jenn

PS. Here’s a Lafayette new’s story about the conference!

Dr. Dennis Keeney Visit

Just wanted to mention that on Mon. Feb. 9th, Dr. Dennis Keeney, Professor Emeritus of Agronomy and Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering and former Director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, gave two presentations.

The first was: “Ethanol’s Power Politics: Social and Environmenal Consequences” at noontime.  It was a really informative addition to the orientation hoopla, and quite a contrast to Hal Kamine’s “Renewable Fuels In Today’s Capital Markets” presentation in October.  Dr. Keeney also gave an evening presentation entitled “From Plate to Gulf: the Social and Environmental Role of Corn”, I wasn’t able to go to that one, but I’m sure it was great and again very relevant to the campus food production/orientation buzz.

At 4PM, Dr. Keeney had a question/answer session with the student garden team.  Lots of enthusiastic gardeners showed up to ask questions 🙂

Jenn