What is the Sustainability SIP Symposium?

The Sustainability SIP Symposium is an annual event held by the Environmental Studies Department and the Larry J. Bell ’80 Environmental Stewardship Center. The Symposium brings together senior students from departments all across campus who have completed their Senior Integrated Project on a topic related to sustainability, climate, or the environment! The event includes a keynote speaker and project presentations, and serves to celebrate our wonderful seniors while also showing the intersectionality of environmental education at Kalamazoo College.

2026 Symposium Recap

This year’s Symposium featured the most presenters we’ve had yet! This Earth Day, over 100 K students, faculty, staff, and Kalamazoo community members were welcomed into the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership to enjoy the evening’s events. The event was bustling long into the evening.

This year’s keynote speaker, Reese Dillard, a water policy coordinator for the Michigan Environmental Council, gave an illuminating address on the importance of relationship-building in revitalizing political movements. She answered questions about the policies she’s currently working on, the systems that environmental organizations use across Michigan to collaborate and support one another, and her advice as a recent graduate entering the field of environmental policy.

Senior presenters had an incredibly diverse array of SIPs, from sculpture to ethical ecology to raccoons. Members of the community, parents, friends, professors, and fellow students had a chance to hear it all! A monumental thanks is in store for all who came to support these seniors and environmental education at K during the Symposium – without you all, events like this would not be possible. We are very grateful to another senior, Abbie Caza, who photographed the event and captured these lovely photos!

Senior Shout-Out

This event wouldn’t be possible without our seventeen seniors who presented at the Symposium. They represent the critical role students play in sustainable progress, serving as excellent examples of the numerous ways climate action and environmental consciousness can be woven into the work we do. Together, these seniors are building a better future and opening doors for more to come. There will be more incredible seniors in the years to follow, so please continue supporting the Symposiums next year and beyond! For a list of all the seniors and their projects, please refer to the list and photos below.

• Henry Black: Deep in the Field of Change: An Ode to Observation
• Yvette Boyse-Peacor: IRM and the Inevitability of Insecticide Resistance
• Gwendolyn Crowder Smith: Prescribed Ruminant Grazing as a Prairie Management and Restoration Tool
• Bizzy Curtis: Threads of Change: How Second-Hand Fashion Weaves Identity, Class, and Sustainability into a New Social Fabric
• Geneva Hannibal: The Under-Researched Role of Raccoons as a Carnivore Parvovirus Reservoir
• Madi Magda: Using Tread Management to Combat Trail Erosion
• Madeline Moss: A Journalistic Exploration of Southwest Michigan Food Systems
• Ryan Neihsl: A Tale of Two Beasts: A Comparative History of Beavers and Pigs and their Affect on European-Indigenous Relations
• Nora Parks-Church: The Ethics of Invasion and Restoration Ecology in the Era of the Capitalocene
• Bea Putman: Sunlight to Energy: Low Spin Mn(II) complexes with N-heterocyclic Carbene Ligands
• Sophia Danielle Sprick: Of Clay, Stone, and Water: On Material Memory, and the Embodied Knowledge Within Layered Landscapes
• Lauren Stallman: Utilization of Prescribed Grazing for Grassland Ecosystem Management
• Nat Ward: Yellowstone Bison: The Ongoing Battle with Brucellosis
• Luke Werner: Invasion Versus Invitation: How non-native fish saved the Great Lakes from non-native humans
• Zoe Wilson: Sowing Sovereignty: Decolonial Approaches to Community Gardening and Environmental Justice
• Hailey Yoder: Effects of Reef Restoration Efforts on Fish Communities on Isabela Island, Galapagos
• Kenzi Zimmerman-Frost: The Impact of Cover Crops and Crop Rotation on Agro-Microbial Composition

Supporting Sustainability at K

As we eagerly await the 2027 Sustainability Symposium, we encourage you to explore other opportunities to support sustainability and environmental education at K. If you’re looking to see what we’ve been up to at the Environmental Stewardship Center or get involved in our upcoming events, check out this page! Make sure to follow us on Instagram at @envirostewkzoo and @kzooarb, or stop in to see us in Dewing Commons offices 100 and 101. Interested in hearing from your eco-minded folks on campus? Drop into our Sustainability Chats at 11 am on even-week Wednesdays in Dewing Commons or keep an eye out for our Community Reflection in Week 8. We hope to see you around and supporting environmental action on campus!

Environmental Stewardship Center

Subscribe to receive posts about the ESC, academics, student projects, and events directly to your inbox!