A large crowd recently gathered at the 10th annual Environmental Justice Earth Day Conference on the Kent State University East Liverpool campus. The day included presentations from several area conservation experts, as well as judging of student papers and posters.
In the academic English essay category, winners included Felicia Plumm, first place; Emily Hays, second place; and Logan Gaskill, third place. In the memoir category, winners included Jacob Smith, first place; Justin Miller, second place; and Jamie Blankenship, third place.
In the sociology essay category, winners were Grace Dusek, first place; Kayla White, second place; and Rebekah Coy, third place. Honorable mentions included Desiree Winnen, Nicole Campana and Hope George. Poster winners were Madison Brown, Heather Swickard, Alexandra Williams, Caitlin Miller and Sarah Fusco.
Conference presenters included Caitlin Johnson, Sarah Smiley and Roger Greenawalt.
Johnson discussed Ohio Organizing Collaborative‘s “Listening Posts” which are designed to gather information about fracking in Ohio. She discussed fracking, the results of the information gathering in other areas of Ohio and kept the presentation interactive by posing environmental questions to the audience.
Smiley, who became interested in water use and conservation on a trip to Africa, is a professor of geography at Kent State University at Salem and talked about her field research on water in Dar es Salaam. She stressed the importance of clean and inexpensive sources of water globally, using her research to demonstrate the increasing importance and value of water.
Greenawalt discussed the cost benefits of geothermal energy and ways energy credits and energy savings reduce the costs of installing this heating and cooling source.
###
Media Contact:
Bethany Zirillo, 330-382-7430, bgadd@kent.edu
