BY RORY HUTCHINS ‘25
This past weekend I traveled to the Yess Conference with Emily Ling ‘26, Mimi Burnett ‘25, Wendy Wu ‘23, and our chaperones Ms. Doggett and Ms. Lohwater to engage in some provocative dialogue surrounding the controversial topic of climate change. We arrived at the Ashokan Center located in the woods of Ulster Park, New York. Getting out our sleeping bags from the trunk, the six of us were ready for the three-day conference. Our day started with an orientation and then hearing from climate activists around the world. On the second day, we began to split into breakout groups. For me, the most exciting presenter I went to talked about Tupperware. When you think about it, when we microwave our food in plastic containers or eat hot food with plastic utensils, the plastic normally seeps into our food which we then eat. Because plastic does not decompose in our bodies, the plastic we accidentally ingested will remain in our system forever. The long-term scientific effects of plastic in our bodies are unknown, but aside from that, I began to think. The coming day, my group mates and I were supposed to propose a climate action plan that we had come up with for our school. The six of us sat around the wooden dining hall table thinking. We were already a plastic water-bottle-free campus, we used reusable dining ware, was there something else we were missing? That’s when Ms. Lohwater spoke up and stated that at the last S4S meeting, six students showed up to the club block despite the roaster of students in S4S being over 100.
Together we realized that one of the bigger problems is not regarding the sustainability of St. Mark’s but rather, community engagement. We decided that some possible ways to garner greater student engagement could include printing the newspapers to have spares in the dining hall, changing the TV boards in hallways to showcase important events, and creating posters to get students and faculty involved. Going to this conference prompted us to realize that yes, sustainability is important, but to be sustainable, we first need to involve a greater selection of people. The Yess Conference participants hope to speak to the faculty and Board of Trustees about the topic in March and early April.