Monday, March 9, 2015
IYEY Conference
EPOC
Environmental Professionals Of Color
Rachel Russell and Daijah Sek
Among the selections of the first few morning workshop sessions, this particular one seemed to interest us both. Being young females of color, we wanted to learn more about the scarcity of young colored women in the environmental work field. Prior to workshops beginning, we were let loose by Andrea and Matt to mingle with other students and environmentalists. We came across the EPOC table and immediately wanted to learn more. There we met, Donna Hope and her coworker (cannot remember her name, and we have 1 itinerary circulating the room).
They gave us a very brief overview of what they were all about, and told us that they were having a session. We decided to take part in it.
Upon walking into the room, the women greeted us and had us sit in a circle. We did a small icebreaker, in which we stated our name, our grade, educational/career standing point, and favorite dance move. To be honest, it was a very strange activity. Following the icebreaker, we all did a gallery walk around the room and wrote and drew our thoughts on a specific word. For example, the posters said: Diversity, Equity, Equality, Justice, and Privilege. We all wrote and drew a variety of different things that we thought represented those words. After we completed this, we did a discussion. Because we got so in depth with the activity, we did not have a ton of time to talk about diversity within environmental professions. However, we are now aware of the small amount of young colored women in these work fields, and can do research and contact EPOC for more information and questions.
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Bay and Paul Blog Post
ReplyDelete2/9 Meeting and Hybrid Vehicles
During the last Bay & Paul meeting on March 9th, us fellows did some planning. We talked about the IYEYS Conference we all attended in the Bronx. We started off by all discussing our thoughts on it, then we split off into groups of three or pairs to write blog posts on our experiences. I paired up with Rachel and we wrote about our workshop we attended with the EPOC group. They were the Environmental Professionals of Color. We had a great time learning about not only a diverse spectrum of Environmentalists, but also women in the field. Overall, I could tell that we all left the event learning something new. The great thing about attending this event aside from new knowledge was the experience. We were able to reflect on the event and plan for ours. This summer, Bay and Paul fellows will be planning and hosting the MAYA conference. We will need to come up with plans for food, workshops, how the day will run for the guest for up to three days. It is a lot to take on, but thankfully we have lots of heads to put together. We looked at all of the things we thought went well and what could have been done better for the conference. No negativity toward the awesome people back in NY, but there is always room for constructive criticism. We have actually started to get a good run on MAYA planning and this will definitely get us going and up on our feet.
As for some cool environmental stuff, Hybrid cars are getting more popular!
Recently announced on March 13th, the UK has placed a mass vehicle order at a £5 million commitment from the current administration to decrease the emissions of governmental fleet transport. There is also a new £35 million fund developed to help allow four cities in the UK to become centers for low-emission vehicles by replacing public transportation and governmental fleets to replace their existing fleets with low-emission vehicles. The widespread of hybrid vehicles consists of all-electric and plug-in cars and vans, involves fifteen different departments and agencies within the UK Government, including the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Defence, the Home Office and the Government Car Service. All together, over 60 of the vehicles ordered will be fully electric vehicles like the Nissan LEAF electric car, and the remainder being made up of plug-in vehicles like the Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in Hybrid. While hybrid vehicles are a great example of movement toward alternative energy sources, it doesn't mean that we will stop using gasoline to power our vehicles. It is a small step out of many to push for cleaner transportation.