Three students from Penn State Schuylkill presented at the Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium (PERC) sustainability symposium on March 21 at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. This was PERC's first Student Sustainability Symposium. The three students from Penn State Schuylkill, Gabriel Rohrberg (finance, 2017), Stacy Koperna (biology, 2017) and Kaitlyn Bandholz (immunology and infectious disease, 2017) presented a poster at the conference which outlined the students’ roles in Penn State Schuylkill’s sustainability Initiative titled EPICS (Envision, Plan, Implement, Change and Sustain). Matthew Hansley (administration of justice and sociology, 2014) was a co-author on the poster, but was not able to attend the symposium.
The symposium was designed to provide an opportunity for students to present their sustainability-related research, co-curricular projects, creative works, action projects and community initiatives, and to network with students across the state to promote sustainability collaborations (from pagreencolleges.org) The PERC conference was a gathering of college sustainable organizations and groups, who shared ideas and accomplishments with each other. No matter the size of the effort, all of the colleges contributed their own unique twist on sustainability. The projects included everything from on-campus improvements and development of clubs for sustainability to global impact and development of projects to implement sustainable practices in the global market.
Students indicated that the conference was a great opportunity to learn what students from other colleges and universities are doing. They gained ideas on what works and what doesn’t, how to generate enthusiasm from students on campus, and how to do things more effectively. They were able to network with others who may serve as resources for the future.
The students are looking forward to implementing many of the ideas from the conference when they return to campus. They also are looking forward to returning next year to share what they’ve learned.
For more information, see http://pagreencolleges.org/events?eventId=803408&EventViewMode=EventDetails