Students Honored Mother Earth Across Campus

By Mallory Miller

Students throughout campus honored Mother Earth on Monday by participating in fun-filled activities, conversing with other students and enjoying the sunny, 85-degree weather.

The Earth Day Committee, Sustainability Office and other sustainability clubs collaborated to create an educational and influential day for Santa Clara students.

"Everyone has been extra positive today, and excited to come up with creative things to say for the Earth Day photo booth," said environmental science major Sean Reilly, who was a volunteer photographer for Earth Day.

Students had the chance to write something related to Earth Day on small whiteboards and have their photograph taken with the board, while standing in front of a large picture of the Earth. These photographs will be posted on the Santa Clara Earth Day event page on Facebook, and will also be submitted to a competition that Earth.org is holding. The competition is designed so that different colleges from around the nation can see how each other celebrated Earth Day on their campuses.

"This competition was a great way to create a nationwide community celebration of Earth Day, and to also show that people do care about our Earth," said Ezana Tesfu, president of the Grass Roots Environmental Efforts Now Club.

The GREEN Club has played a key role in setting up past Earth Day events. This year the Office of Sustainability stepped up to the plate and co-hosted the event with the GREEN Club.

"We had many fresh new faces and creative minds help out with the Earth Day Planning Committee, along with the students who are involved in sustainability clubs," said Cara Uy, sustainability coordinator for the Office of Sustainability.

This was one of the first years Earth Day had a stage. Assistant Professor Christopher Bacon, from the environmental sciences and studies department, spoke and gave a brief history of Earth Day, which has been celebrated since the 1970s.

Santa Clara students weren't the only ones out celebrating the Earth; there were 25 vendors on the lawn outside of the Harrington Learning Commons as well.

Peace for Chain and Better Work of the Future were only a few of the local vendors from Santa Clara County who came out to promote Earth-related subjects such as sustainability and the passing of environmental laws.

Contact Mallory Miller at memiller@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.