Rider students chosen to participate in sustainability symposium in Connecticut

Two students, Kathy Blachut ’16 and Lexi Reynolds ’17, were chosen to represent Rider at the first annual Student Sustainability Leadership Symposium at Connecticut College on the weekend of Nov. 7. The SSL Symposium invited student sustainability leaders from colleges across the Northeast to participate in skill-building, interactive workshops.

Kathy Blachut, a senior environmental science major, and Lexi Reynolds, a junior sociology major, are both earning minors in sustainability, learning how to look at the world in an environmentally but likewise, socially and economically conscious way. Blachut and Reynold’s collaborated to create a workshop that educated their peers on how to spread sustainability awareness to new college students.

Their workshop, “Beginner’s Guide to Sustainable Consciousness: First Year Student Edition,” was chosen to be presented at the SSL Symposium. Through strategy games and audience involvement, the workshop examined successful ways of introducing sustainability initiatives and lifestyles to students and challenging them to think and act in a more holistically conscious way.

“Sustainability has become an ever-increasing focus in the world over the last few years and yet many students do not know about it," Blachut says. "Our workshop was focused on how to properly educate and inspire students be sustainably-minded through college in a way where, ideally, that can be carried into adulthood.”

The Leadership Symposium consisted of nine workshops and offered participants the opportunity to gain and enhance practical leadership skills through hands-on experiences. The conference was geared toward students so that the participants could immerse themselves in new knowledge and new skills and practice cognitive ways of thinking about sustainability.

While at the conference, the two students were also able to meet peers from other universities and see how they are approaching sustainability practices on their campuses. 

When asked about her experience, Reynolds was still buzzing with excitement. “It was so inspiring to see what others in the field are doing, especially as innovative thinking is the most valuable tool in shifting towards more sustainable and efficient practices.”