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Earth Week 2024

Villanova University 

Celebrates Earth Day 2024

April 16 - April 27

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Original artwork by Emma Witanowski, Sustainability Intern BS/BA Envi Sci & Geography, Class of '24
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Tuesday, April 16

Hosted by the Office of Health Promotion

Time: 5:30 PM

Location: TBD

Registration required

 

Thursday, April 18

Saturday, April 20

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This event is organized by a group of students. 

Sunday, April 21

*Students Only (Capacity: 12)*

Time: 9:00 AM

Location: Willows Park 490 Darby-Paoli Rd, Villanova, PA 19085

Volunteer at The Willows to plant trees. Breakfast and lunch provided. Transportation organized by the Student Sustainability Committee.

Registration Required

Hosted by the Campus Activities Team (CAT)

Time: 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Location: Sheehan Beach

Earth Day: Monday, April 22

Time: 12:05 PM 

Location: Corr Chapel

Tuesday, April 23

Hosted by Hugh Weldon, Villanova's Horitcultural Supervisor

Time: 12:00 PM

Location: Steps of Corr Hall

 

Strategic Initiative for Climate, Justice and Sustainability (SICJS)

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 PM  

Location: Falvey Library Speaker’s Corner

Students, faculty, and staff will gather on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, from 4-5 PM in the Speaker’s Corner in Falvey Library to hear featured speaker Steve T. Goldsmith, PhD and 2023-24 Faculty Fellow in Climate, Justice & Sustainability deliver a talk titled “Broadening Diversity in the Environmental Sciences Through a High School Environmental Justice Focused Research Experience.”

Urban communities often suffer the greatest damage from poor water, air, and soil quality. Geoscience programs, including the environmental sciences, are the foundation for jobs tasked with remedying these problems; however, the racially minoritized residents who disproportionately experience environmental burdens are vastly underrepresented in these fields. 

This partnership with Walter B. Saul High School in Philadelphia uses and immersive, locally based, culturally responsive research experience in urban environmental geochemistry, through an environmental justice lens, to broaden a pathway to the geosciences for underrepresented minoritized students.  Students are engaged though both school-based active learning modules and a solutions-based summer research experience carried out alongside Villanova undergraduate students.  This talk will highlight successes, challenges, and lessons learned.   

Wednesday, April 24

Vendors, student groups, study abroad opportunities, activities, student research presentations, free giveaways!

Time: 10:30 AM - 2:00 PM

Location: Oreo/Connelly Plaza

Hosted by Anthony Severns, Intern for the Office for Sustainability

Time: 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM

Location: Meet at the Oreo

Michael Weilbacher, Executive Director of the Schuylkill Environmental Education Center (retired), author, and radio personality, will give an address titled “Hotter, Wetter, Weirder – Climate Change in Philadelphia.”

Time: 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM

Location: Connelly Cinema

Registration Required

Time: 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Location: Villanova Room, Connelly

In this inaugural Lifelong Learning series, co-hosted by the Villanova University Alumni Association (VUAA), Office of Sustainability and College of Professional Studies (CPS), attendees will learn how to achieve an ethos of sustainable living focused on the Augustinian perspective, as well as hear how Villanova is responding to this call through the Rooted. Restless. Strategic Plan. 

Alumni, parents and friends of the University are invited to join us first for an in-person kickoff event on campus on Wednesday, April 24, followed by seven weeks of virtual sessions that will cover key sustainability concepts and everyday actions that each of us can take to do our part.

There are two ways to participate in the Series:

  1. Attend selected sessions of interest as a casual learner.
  2. Enroll as a CPS student and attend all eight events to earn a non-credit certificate in the “Ethos of Sustainable Living.”

Registration is available for the below events:

In-Person Event:

April 24: Opening night on Villanova's campus.

This in-person event will feature a keynote address by Laura Tenenbaum, an award-winning globally recognized innovator in science and climate communication, as well as a walking campus tree tour, networking, buffet dinner and remarks from University leadership.

Registration Required

Faculty, staff and students are invited to a movie screening and panel discussion for Trash and Burn, the story of Zulene Mayfield, on April 24 at 5:30pm in Driscoll Hall.

Located in an affluent, majority white county, the city of Chester, Pennsylvania, is mostly black and home to an unprecedented cluster of industrial polluting facilities. Trash & Burn, by local filmmaker Bilal Motley, follows one woman's decades-long fight to stop the nation's largest trash incinerator from polluting her small town.

Panelists:

  • Erin Johnson, MPH, RN – public health nurse
  • Zulene Mayfield - Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living (CRCQL)
  • Bilal Motley – film maker and Chester, PA native.
  • Tikia Robinson - Chester parent of child with asthma.

Continuing Education Opportunities:

  • Villanova Students: ACS approved.
  • Nursing CE is available for nurses free of charge.
  • Social Work Continuing Education, for members of National Association of Social Workers (NASW). First 20 NASW members are free, after that $15 for NASW members, $25 non-member.

Thursday, April 25

Join us for a gentle yoga class led by Allie McAllister from the Office for Sustainability. Bring your own yoga mat. We will have extras for those who need to borrow a mat!

Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Location: Doughtery West Lounge

 

Led by the Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship.

Time: 12:00 - 1:00 PM

Location: Dundale Mansion Parking Lot 

 

Come meet and chat with Villanova's Chief Sustainability Officer.

Time: 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Location: St Rita Hall Community Room

Hosted by the Student Sustainability Committee. Sustainable prizes, snacks, and composting provided.

Time: 9:00 PM

Location: Cafe Nova

Friday, April 26

Hosted by the Student Sustainabiliy Committee. 

Time: 12:00 - 3:00 PM

Location: Oreo

Wildcat Thrift is Villanova’s once-a-semester pop-up thrift store. Organizations and individuals will have tables set up with second hand items for purchase. Support a circular economy and join us for sustainable shopping. The planet cant afford fast fashion. 

For those who want to register, here is the link.

Individuals:

- Purchase tables at $10 each.

- You keep the profits.

- Encourage group participation: Gather friends to create tables together.

- Unsold clothes can be collected for donation by us. 

Student Organizations:

-Purchase tables at $20 each and keep profits. Treat this as a fundraiser.

OR

-Alternatively, tables are free, but participants must donate all profits to an organization of their choice and be prepared to provide proof, as we will follow up.

 - Organizations are encouraged to create incentives for donations. For example, Greek life could offer 1 sister point for each piece of clothing donated.

- Unsold clothes can be collected for donation by us.

Saturday, April 27

Trasnportation NOT provided. We will connect volunteers together to organize carpooling.

Registration Required

Time: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Location: Multiple Sites

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Villanova University Earth Day activities are sponsored by:

Office for Sustainability

Strategic Initiative for Climate, Justice, and Sustainability

Sustainability Leadership Council

Mission and Ministry

Office of the Provost

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society

Elenore and Robert F. Moran Sr. Center for Global Leadership

Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest

Villanova Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship

Villanova Center for Global and Public Health

Villanova Center for Global Leadership

Villanova Center for Peace and Justice Education

Ethics Program

Department of Biology

Department of Geography and the Environment

Grounds Staff and the Recycling Coordinator

Environmental Health and Safety

Dining Services

Office of Student Life

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VUSustainability

Villanova University, as a community of learned and learning scholars, respecting the sacredness of all creation, accepts its responsibility to the integrity of Earth and its biodiversity, to the heritage of future generations, and to the security of nations. By utilizing the Augustinian values of Unitas, Veritas, and Caritas, meaning love thy neighbor, promote community unity, and live life in moderation through our curriculum, work environment, and operations, Villanova’s approach to sustainability exemplifies an emphasis on social justice and community service.

For questions regarding campus sustainability email Sustainability@villanova.edu