On April 19th and 20th, 2023, Kalamazoo College hosted the 2023 Sustainability SIP Symposium. The event was sponsored by the Larry J. Bell ’80 Environmental Stewardship Center and Environmental Studies Concentration. The 2023 Symposium marked the first in person Sustainability SIP Symposium since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We were happy to present in person again!
Keynote speaker, Kirsten Clemente, Farm Director at the Kalamazoo Nature Center, shared her work centering around regenerative farming, and the challenge of how to create a system of agriculture that supports our human population and is also ecologically sustainable.
The following night, Kalamazoo College seniors presented their Senior Integrated Projects (SIPs) related to the environment or sustainability. The SIPs came from various academic departments: Environmental Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies, Biology and Physics.
Learn about these talented and driven students below:
- Lauren Crossman (Political Science & History Majors, English Minor American Studies Concentration): Sustainable Goal Setting with Businesses on the Kalamazoo Mall
- Kiah Holdsworth (Math Major): Analysis of Kalamazoo College Campus Tree Health, Vulnerability, and Carbon Sequestered Between 2019 and 2022
- Zoe Reyes (Biology & Spanish Major, Anthropology & Sociology Minor): On Healing: Understanding People-Plant Relations through Eco-poetry and Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings
- Xochitl Robertson (Biology Major): Plant Uptake Of Heavy Metal Pollution At Riverview Eastside And Potential For Phytoremediation
- Maeve Crothers (Political Science Major, Environmental Studies Concentration): Seed Sovereignty through Community Based Seed Stewardship
- Lizzy Silber (Biology Major, Economics Major, Environmental Studies Concentration): Urban Or Rural: Does It Matter To Bumble Bees? An Analysis In Kalamazoo, MI
- Celine Lignell (Biology & Critical Ethnic Studies Major, Anthropology & Sociology Minor): Envisioning a Decolonial Education for Our Kids: An Exploration into the Summer Camp Experience
- Natalie Call (Biology Major, Psychology Minor): Exploring the moose-wolf population dynamics of Isle Royale National Park, MI
- Maeve Novotny (Biology Major, Environmental Studies Concentration): Farming with Nature: An Internship at DeLano Homestead
- Katherine Rock (Biology Major): New Invaders to Hardwood Forests: Discovering Jumping Worms (Amynthas) at the Lillian Anderson Arboretum
- Bella Kirchgessner (Anthropology/Sociology Major, Political Science Minor Environmental Studies Concentration): Now that I am Wiser…I Know the Earth Loves Me Back Love Letters to Persons from Environmental Anthropologists
- Marcus Rucker (Biology Major, Environmental Studies Concentration): Comparison of VIIRS Active Fire Data and Sentinel–2 Data for Mapping Agricultural Burning in Kenya
