UMass Boston

UMass Boston’s School for the Environment and the Office of Campus Planning & Sustainability collaborated to offer a full calendar of environmental events, including a symposium and activity fair on Earth Day.

On April 22, the Campus Center echoed with the voices of excited students as they gathered for UMass Boston’s annual Earth Day Symposium. Hosted by the School for the Environment, the event allowed dozens of students and faculty to present their research, both on stage and in a series of poster sessions.

“It’s become a real celebration of our enthusiasm to save our world,” said Elizabeth L. Sweet, associate dean of the School for the Environment. “The mission of our school is to really engage with people—communities, students, faculty, staff—to get as many as possible working with each other to take action. This school is transdisciplinary; we believe everyone has something to add.”

Assistant professor Sowmya Balachandran and her students presented their work on affordable housing innovation. Image by: Kaitlin Prince

The posters on display featured work in geoscience, genetics, psychology, urban planning, art, and a wide spectrum of other topics. Visitors had the chance to learn about cooling waters in the Gulf of Maine, how to center indigenous culture in high school science classes, public transportation in Mexico City, and the diversity of birds on the UMass Boston campus.

For the first time, the symposium was accompanied by an activities fair organized by the Office of Campus Planning and Sustainability, where sixteen booths showcased environmental initiatives. Representatives of Makerspace showed off a machine capable of turning plastic bottles into 3D printer filament, the Bug Club brought glass cases full of interesting insects, and Healy Library staff organized a book share.

Janna Cohen-Rosenthal, UMass Boston’s Sustainability and Resiliency Planner, emphasized that sustainability isn’t only about traditional nature-based environmentalism. “It’s about protecting human health and creating livable, healthy communities,” she said. Many departments of UMass Boston, from Athletics to Transportation, conduct sustainability work year-round, but “Earth Day is a great time to get everyone talking about those connections, and making them more obvious.” Student Sustainability Assistants, interns from Cohen-Rosenthal’s office, designed multiple creative activities, including a game about reducing food waste.

Maria Vasco '20 stands behind her table at the Earth Day activities fair. Image by: Kaitlin Prince

At a table hosted by Uvida Shop, visitors could purchase plastic-free home essentials from a UMass alumna: Maria Vasco ‘20, a winner of the prestigious John F. Kennedy Award for Academic Excellence. Since graduating, Vasco has grown Uvida Shop into an eco-friendly business with a storefront in Boston’s North End.

“I was always learning about climate change and trying to be an environmental activist,” said Vasco. “I stumbled across the zero-waste movement, which is all about reducing the amount of plastic waste that we send to landfills. I felt that it was really important, and there’s a lot of room for innovation.”

The environmental festivities continued throughout the month. A suite of wellness-focused activities began on April 17 with a visit from the Dana Farber Sun Safety/Skin Cancer Prevention Program. Hosted by University Health Services, the event offered free skin cancer screenings and other sun safety activities. On April 23, PhD candidate Alyssa Goncalves offered a body mapping workshop to help students visualize their experience, anxiety and strength in the face of climate change.

On the same day, the Department of Urban Planning and Community Development put on a lecture on how urban environments can adapt to support aging communities. Ann Forsyth, the Ruth and Frank Stanton Professor of Urban Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, discussed some of the measures that can help older adults to “age in place,” from advanced technologies to redesigning shared urban spaces.

On April 24, UMass Boston students gathered on campus to participate in the City Nature Challenge, identifying as many species of animals and plants as they could. Their results were entered into the iNaturalist app, contributing to a global biodiversity survey.

Earth Month activities concluded on April 30 with a Campus Resilience Tour hosted by Cohen-Rosenthal and student interns, highlighting renewable energy systems and environmental justice.