This week, environmentally-minded folks at Kalamazoo College had two things to celebrate: Earth Week, and the 2024 Sustainability SIP Symposium!

Hosted by the Environmental Stewardship Center and the Environmental Studies Department, the Symposium is a gathering of seniors who completed their Senior Integrated Project (SIP) in Environmental Studies; their projects came from disciplines all across campus, from biology, to German, to art!

Students, families, and friends came together in the Banquet Hall to hear the seniors present on their topics, answer questions, and explore the work of their peers. This year’s SIPs covered a diverse range of topics, including grazing sheep in the Arboretum, tackling the ins and outs of ecotourism in Costa Rica, and painting human-nature relations inspired by the Nature Center’s DeLano Farms.

The SIP Symposium is an important event because it invites all of our campus community to understand a key concept: that sustainability at Kalamazoo College is a collective effort! It doesn’t only come from the Environmental Stewardship Center, or the natural sciences; sustainability takes all of us, from all communities and areas of study.

A special thank you to our seniors, who created and shared such wonderful projects with us: Aide Hazel Gaitan, Guenevere Baierle, Camran Stack, Olivia DePauli, Quinn Collins, Celia A. Kuch, Aerin Braunohler, Gabriel Coleman.

We can’t wait to see you all at next year’s Symposium!