Presenters

Over the summer of 2021 a community science-based campaign was conducted to map the urban heat island of Harrisonburg VA. The presentation will discuss both this campaign and its aftermath and describe the coalition that is currently forming to create workable policy to mitigate the effects that were mapped to help show how to translate research projects into tangible results for the community. 

EMU has created a document to guide our institution to carbon neutrality by 2035. Our presentation will explore the progress we have made thus far, and the potential next steps that EMU can take. 

Our team has been researching biomimicry and applying inspiration from nature to remove microplastics from rivers before dispersing into the oceans. Our sources of inspiration for solving United Nations SDG 14.1 were the tentacles of the Portuguese Man o War and the baleen in the mouths of whales. 

The Sustainable Food Initiative is an on campus club that focuses on increasing sustainability and awareness through on campus gardens, chickens, food access initiatives and providing educational spaces. 

For the past year, MBU Net Impact has worked on establishing a compost program on campus for the collection of food waste. This presentation will outline the conception of our project, our current processes, the successes we've achieved and obstacles we've navigated, and our goals for the future.

Madison Acts has been working with different community partners in the area, such as Open Doors, Our Community Partner, and Mercy house to spread awareness about homelessness in the area, while trying to educate volunteers about the Sustainable Development Goals and how they can play their part. We have hosted Weekly Game night at Open Doors shelter where we educate our volunteers about the SDGs and give them a chance to see homelessness in the area first hand. We also had the chance to help renovate a home through OCP. We are currently working on other projects at well that we will discuss in more depth at the summit! 

Vine & Fig’s Jubilee Climate Farm, a 6-acre plot of land, serves as our capstone project site. Our goal is to observe and analyze soil quality to help aid in preparation for establishing a self-sustaining food forest in the future. 

I have been working with the Jubilee Climate Farm to research, design, and implement a silvopasture system to better understand and advance agroforestry in the Shenandoah Valley.

​This piece of performance art provides a form for dissecting and understanding the divide between human and nature and the resulting effects of human-induced climate change.

This presentation will define each SDG to the audience, address statistics that support the significance of these goals and outline the progression toward achieving each goal, all with the objective of connecting the issues stemming from these goals to local challenges and discuss potential solutions with audience.