Dartmouth Week 1

Howdy folks,

We’ve been mighty busy since our 2017 Dartmouth program kicked off on Sunday. Following an awesome keynote from the hilarious and provocative XM radio host, Pete Dominick, we set the stage for our time together with the Awakening the Dreamer symposium; high and low ropes course challenges; and other team-building and orientation activities. I think it’s safe to say that it is a strong group with many complimentary personalities and perspectives.

So far we’ve heard from three additional guest speakers: Dartmouth Professor Celia Chen, an ecotoxicologist and expert on methyl mercury’s (a significant and growing environmental and human health issue); Carey Underwood, King Arthur Flour (a founding Benefit Corporation)’s Director of Mission; and Rosi Kerr, Dartmouth’s Director of Sustainability. Rosi’s talk shed much light on the many challenges – cultural, financial, environmental, etc – of adopting sustainability practices at Dartmouth. But she also shared insight into the pathways to successful implementation of initiatives that positively impact people and the planet, some of which are likely to inform our students’ own independent projects.

On that note, we have some ambitious ones, including proposals to address local food and material waste; create greener localized transportation systems; reduce energy consumption through conservation and awareness campaigns; contribute to a body of important academic research; and many more.

We have been supporting each other through workshops on social entrepreneurship, systems thinking, in situ technologies, and other relevant topics; feedback and research strategy sessions; and structured activities designed to focus these initiatives on realistic and attainable goals. I’m optimistic we’ll see some real and genuine impact come out of these incredible student projects!

It hasn’t been all work and study, of course. We’ve learned how to make pizza in a baking class; had a lakeside BBQ, and yesterday did a short hike on the Appalachian Trail as a precursor to our trek up Mount Moosilauke next Friday.

Much more to come. Enjoy these pictures in the interim…