25 years of bringing our kids to work

The Take our Daughters to Work movement started as a job shadow day, but early ESF organizers realized that much would be out of context—and children shouldn’t be participating in meetings with privileged discussions (administrative meetings, thesis/dissertation defenses). So, the ESF Women's Caucus built a structured program, asking presenters to share some aspect of their ESF-fostered field in an interactive way—commonly through debate, models, and scaled down experiments.  For the past 15 years, sons have participated as well as daughters and kids have spent a rotation or two learning about a life skill or recreational pursuit, also shared by a member of the ESF community.

Our 2018 program welcomed children from 18(!) area schools. Parents brought 19 children; 4 came with a grandparent, sibling or aunt; 8 with family friends.  Faculty enrolled 6 children (4 of their own; 2 friends), but as has been the pattern since we started tracking, the bulk of the participants were enrolled by staff members from across campus.

We thank presenters:
 ֍Plant History – Megan O’Keefe, Forest and Natural Resources Management ֍  

 ֍Wind Turbines – Maura Stefl and  Brittany Wong, Experiential Learning and Outreach֍

֍ Yoga – Mary Hagemann ֍

֍ Great Lakes Food Web – Stacy Furgal, Environmental and Forest Biology ֍ 
֍ Stormwater Infrastructure – Environmental Resource Engineering Club (ERE Club) & NY Water Environment Association (NYWEA) ֍ 
֍Designing a Park – Prof. Maren King, Savy Kep, Shaghayegh Shahhosseini, Olivia Pinner, Remi Lynch, Maggie Pasanen, Landscape Architecture & the Center for Community Design Research֍
֍Analyzing Human-Wildlife Conflict – Dr. Andrea Parker, Environmental Studies֍
More photos available here.

We also thank:

• Rock star chaperones:  Brad Fierke, Vizma Leimanis, Makayla Thornton, Kanika Jakhmola, Steven Grunwald, and Hollis Harrington; 
• Prep team:  Heather Engelman and Nichole Angell
• Lunch team:  Kanika Jakhmola, Dawn Jewell, Caroline Bailey, Linda McGuigan and Josh Arnold
• photographers: Heather Engelman and Paul Otteson
• the many offices that contributed stuff for kids to carry out activities:  ALUMNI RELATIONS and the ESF CAMPUS BOOKSTORE, pencils and magnets; SU BOOKSTORE, mugs; COMMUNICATIONS, string backpacks; OPEN ACADEMY, puzzle pens; PROVOST’s OFFICE and ESF WOMEN’S CAUCUS, lunch, snacks, color printing, potting media; GREENHOUSE, pots and space; CHESTNUT PROJECT, seed; PHYSICAL PLANT and MORRISVILLE AUXILLIARY SERVICES, set & clean up; COPY CENTER, B/W printing.  Consistent with the 2018 national program theme,  each of these individuals, organizations and offices are, indeed, agents of positive change

Afrofuturism and the Environment

On April 12^th, Robyn Reed, Head of Access Services, Schaffer Library, Union College,  lead the community in a conversation about Afrofuturism and the Environment.   Reed shared a short film titled Pumzi. This award-winning film is a Kenyan science-fiction story written and directed by Wanuri Kahiu. The film is set to take place in the future, 30 years after World War III – the water war. Life on earth is now largely nonexistent. The story line follows Asha, who curates a museum in an East African territory with exhibits including long gone plant and animal life. Asha receives a package that suggests that the planet outside her strictly enclosed community might be viable.

Struck by the possibility, Asha leaves her community to plant a seed. Trading her own security for the survival of the seed, she travels across the landscape to search for viable land. The film ends in a scene of sacrifice and hope.

Following the film, Reed facilitated a discussion, prompting viewers for their impressions; some saw themes of hope, while others saw hopelessness. The crowd praised the poignancy of the film, which projected a future in which resource scarcity has driven communities to war and insecurity. This theme is perhaps especially relevant for much of the African content, which may disproportionately feel the effects of climate change and resource depletion. 

Afrofuturism is a genre of speculative fiction that, unlike many science fiction stories, projects a future where black culture is significant and central. Afrofuturism addresses the fact that mainstream fictional futurism has failed to include black culture and black bodies from narratives. Further, as a sociopolitical thought movement, Afrofuturism expresses that solutions to social and environmental crises cannot and will not come exclusively from white voices, asserting a space for black culture in ideas for future innovation. While some see Afrofuturism as hugely speculative, like all good science fiction, it is potentially deeply prescriptive as is drives viewers to consider the possible.

Throughout her presentation Robyn Reed provided suggestions of further movies, books, anthologies, and artists in Afrofuturist genre. These include but are not limited to the anthologies Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturim and Beyond and Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora; works from authors such as Octavia Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, Nnedi Okorafor, and Samuel Delaney; art work such as Farbice Monteiro’s The Profecy series; and perhaps most notably the Black Panther movie, which has been hugely successful in theaters. To add a personal reference, much of Janelle Monet’s work has brought Afrofuturism to the popular modern music world.

This event served as a fantastic introduction the Afrofuturism. Perhaps most notably, Robyn Reed’s presentation on Afrofuturism serves to remind the ESF community to actively include the perspectives of minority individuals in conversations about environmental stewardship and the future direction of our college.

Reed's research interests include studying the intersection of race and science fiction in film and television, Afrofuturism, and information literacy. As a librarian, Reed expressively aims to combat “fake news” by guiding library patrons to more reliable sources for their work.

This event was cosponsored by the Friends of Moon Library and ESF Women's Caucus.  For more information about the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions speaker series, visit http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus/speakers.htm 

As part of the requirements of FOR797, Perspectives on Career and Gender, students share responsibility for reporting on the WiSE Professions speaker series.  The preceding was written by Claudia N Victoroff, Megan Gallagher and Maisie Baronian.

Record breaking enrollment at Girls' Summit

Over 100 girls were inspired by women at ESF and in the greater Syracuse Community!  Girls learned about Paper Science, Manufacturing Engineering, Medicine, Physical Therapy, Environmental Engineering, Meteorology and other fields. Thank you so much to presenters:
Focused Physical Exam: Amylisa Christophe, Omoefe Ebhohimen, Alexis Sykes, Upstate Medical University
Evaluation & Treatment of Common Sports Injuries: Mary Mauro-Bertolo, Physical Therapist
How did it Survive? Kim Oswald, Emma Buckardt, Andrew Meashaw, Sierra Coathrup, Jessie Smith, ESF Student Environmental Education Coalition (SEEC)
How clouds Form/The Use of Clouds to predict weather: Katie St. Denis, Solvay High
Jill of All  Trades: Mel Menon, Rose DelVecchio-Darco Manufacturing; Kate Anechiarico- Haun Welding; Patty Golicki and Rebecca Plumpton, -Northeast Region Council of  Carpenters, and Salma Muse, Chloe Connors, Ailiyah Morris, and Desaree Seals. Syracuse P-TECH
Paper and Bioproducts: Dr. Biljana Bujanovic and Service Track students, ESF Department of Paper and BioProcess Engineering
Mercury in Food Webs: Dr. Roxanne Razavi, ESF Department of Environmental and Forest Biology
Designing A Green City with Stormwater Management: Isabelle Horvath, Erin Cuddihy, Elena Araya, Meghan Medwid, ESF's ERE Club
College Readiness Panel: Mel Menon, facilitator;  Panelists: Robertha Barnes (Upstate), Diana Wilson (ESF), Blessy Bethel (LeMoyne), Desaree Seals (Syracuse P-TECH/OCC), Nyell Lopez (Syracuse Univ)
Tower Challenge: Bristol-Myers Squibb