Students from schools across New England will come to Tufts' campus tomorrow to experience a new kind of environmental symposium, one featuring peer-to-peer learning focused not just on the perils of climate change but also on how to create social movements around environmental issues.
A collaborative effort of 12 New England colleges, the Eco-Rep Symposium invites students to learn from each other at sessions on a variety of topics, including how to conduct environmentally conscious dorm activities and engage students on and off campus.
The representatives from different campuses will be students who work to raise environmental-issue awareness among their peers.
The symposium, hosted by the Tufts Institute for the Environment (TIE) and the Office of Sustainability, will bring students from Brandeis University, Champlain College, Connecticut College, Suffolk University, the University of Vermont and Yale University.
The learning sessions will be conducted by students from these schools and from Tufts, thus serving as opportunities for students to both learn from and network with each other.
The symposium is about "being a role model in the eco-world," said freshman Alexandra Beretta, who helped coordinate the event through her internship with the Office of Sustainability.
Beretta estimated that about 70 people are expected to attend the symposium, and a significant portion of the day will be dedicated to small-group discussions.
Tina Woolston, a project coordinator for the symposium who works in the Office of Sustainability, hopes that what the visiting students learn at the symposium will remain with them when they return home.
"I would like for students to leave this symposium feeling inspired by other students in the event and energized to do other work on the campus," Woolston said.
She added that she wanted students to know that they are a part of a growing group of youths who are actively participating in environmentally focused issues.
Students from the Experimental College course "Environmental Action: Shifting from Saying to Doing," are helping to organize the conference.
Dallase Scott, a graduate student in the Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning program who teaches the Experimental College course, said that the symposium is unique in that it is planned and organized by students instead of faculty members.
By giving students the opportunity to apply their skills in practical contexts, it can give them the confidence and learning experience they need to carry out bigger projects in the future, she said.
The Ex-College course, designed to encourage leadership in environmental action, is in line with the symposium's goals, according to junior Emily Ruff, a student in the class.
She said the course focused on practical applications, like the use of social media, of students' knowledge of environmental studies to bring about change on campus with help from faculty collaborators.
Ruff said that the Eco-Rep Symposium is different from similar events at Tufts or at other schools in that it is about students learning from their peers.
Scott said that the symposium aims to make students who are interested in the cause "comfortable to start networking to create a community of like-minded people, because environmental issues are tough."
The Office of Sustainability is committed to promoting environmental sustainability at Tufts outside of the symposium, supporting projects in various venues, such as food, landscaping and planning and policy.
Woolston said it "serves as a resource, catalyst and an advocate" in the effort.
Tufts' Institute of the Environment is an education and research institute also devoted to environmental issues with specific focus areas of environmental education, health and the environment and water issues.
