Focus the Nation
Describe at least one Focus the Nation event that you attended. What was the audience like? Any surprises? Any inspriration?
posted by UVM Eco-Reps Program Coordinator @ 2:20 PM
Describe at least one Focus the Nation event that you attended. What was the audience like? Any surprises? Any inspriration?
posted by UVM Eco-Reps Program Coordinator @ 2:20 PM
9 Comments:
I went to several focus the nation events. Two light hearted fun ones the Barnes kids presentation and Junk Man and one serious one about environmental policy. I really enjoyed all of them, but certainly learned the most from the policy discussion. It was very interestig and I was super impressed with all Burlington is doing to stop climate change. I had a page full of notes of initiatives that are taking place to help the planet. Everything from getting local, organic foods in the school systems to requiring thirty percent of water use in all new buildings to be solar powered. I had a real great time at all events. The only downer was that the event I was MOST excited about attending- the one that was like an activist training got cancelled. :(
-Arielle
I went to a talk about transportation, another talk about carbon farming, the Burlington Design Charette, and the Rubenstein School Town Meeting. My favorite one was the Design Charette because I am a design-oriented problem solver so the workshop was most meaningful to my learning and working style. I really loved having different stakeholders (or representatives of different sectors) coming together to find common goals and brainstorm solution ideas. I was in the Food and Community Development team and I was amazed by how quickly each of the team member's, including my own, thinking progresses when ideas are shared.
I was impressed by the turnout (the Mayor was there!). The only flaw of the event that I was disappointed by was that all of the different sectors were not integrated.
-Daniel
My favorite event was the Junkman performance. The Junkman blended two of my favorite things into one awesome project: music and recycling! It was really cool to watch him jam out on all recycled materials. Whats even cooler is that he started a program in Vermont public schools to teach kids how to be more environmentally conscious. I think this is really important because the sooner kids learn about recycling the more likely they will recycle earlier in life and hopefully more often in life. I was really impressed by his skill and ability to make music out of literal junk. It was a really cool event, and I think the Junkman is doing a really cool thing.
Liz B.
Focus the Nation seemed to go very well. I had most of my professors mention the activities and one even said he would give extra credit to those who attended an event and then wrote about it. Props to Dan Baker :)
I experienced som difficulties with streaming the live video conference thing, but other than that I would have to say that the focus the nation event ran pretty smoothly and I was impressed by how many people knew about it.
I actually couldn't make it to any of the focus the nation events. I was in classes. Somehow I always managed to only see the last five minutes of two events. I guess I have poor timing. I saw the end of the environmental policy discussion. For the five minutes I was there I was pleased to see what Burlington was doing to stop climate change. I did want to be there with the kids but it was that or math class.
Erin
Unfortunately, my busy schedule during the week of Focus the Nation only gave me time to attend events on the last day, Friday. I went to the conference in the top floor of the Davis center, and listened to both Burlington City council representatives and environmental policy makers for Vermont. It was extremely interesting to learn all the logistics concerning where we are headed in the near future concerning environmental sustainability, and it helped to have some of the more difficult concepts broken down and explained in a manner that students and adults alike could comprehend.
I also went to the Focus the Nation Speak Out, and thoroughly enjoyed listening to Dave Zuckerman and others discuss the role of young student activists in changing the direction of our state and country. I then shared a brief speech on the bottled water phenomenon here at UVM and offered several solutions/insights into this huge issue. All in all the week was fabulous and I feel like a lot was learned by many. I was a little bummed about the technical difficulties concerning the 20% solution live stream, because myself and some friends were present for it at the Davis center, but it never was shown.
-Colin H.
I went to the Junkman performance and the Focus the Nation Speak Out. I really enjoyed the Junkman because he was a real cool dude and it was a lot of fun to jam out on some junk with a bunch of other people. I think it's great that he can blend and eco-conscious message with musical expression. The audience seemed to have a lot of fun and I think his performance definitely inspired everyone to live greener. The Focus the Nation Speak Out was also pretty awesome because it basically summed up the week and all that was accomplished. FTN definitely reached a lot of people and the more people who realize the threats of climate change, the better. I also thought it was really great to open up the floor to students to speak their minds on what should be done, what they have done, or what we should do.
I was unable to attend many of the Focus the Nation Events due to time conflicts but I found that almost all my environmental classes promoted the events and offered extra credit for attendance.
I was able to attend the keynote speaker and found it really inspiring. I was also bummed that the activist training was cancelled.
Like everyone else, I had a problem trying to get the 2% streaming video playing. I worked with an RA to get free pizza at the event. When we finally realized the video was not going to play, we watched planet earth. The event had a nice turnout, despite the fact we couldn't watch the 2% streaming video.
-Lindsey Gillies
One Focus the Nation event I attended was the town meeting in the lobby of Aiken.
I was very impressed by the turnout as many students and professors and even local community members were there. The only flaw of the event that I was disappointed by was how quiet the speakers were at the meeting. People who attended had to remain completely silent and even then it was not easy to make out what they were saying. I was surprised by the free American Flatbread that was given out TWICE! During the meeting I was tabling with two friends to promote local food and gave out free apple cider which nicely complemented the flatbread. Overall I thought it was a great turn out.
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