Middlebury College
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

In January 2013, the Middlebury Center for Social Entrepreneurship hosted its second annual symposium. This year’s theme focused on Social Entrepreneurship and Social Justice. Over the course of three days, participants engaged in topics related to social entrepreneurship and social justice through keynote addresses by Billy Parish and Majora Carter, six workshops led by educators and alumni, presentations by Middlebury students who worked with community partners to address social issues in the area, and conversations with peers.

The Social Entrepreneurship and Social Justice symposium drew over 400 college students from Middlebury and New England, community members, faculty and staff, and local high school students.

In the Spring of 2013, the Office of Sustainability Integration launched Be Bright Middlebury’s Energy Literacy Campaign. The goal of the pilot campaign is to create greater literacy among students about personal energy use and Middlebury College’s energy use and sources. A series of events and communication materials aim to educate the campus about energy, inspire actions that further wise energy use and conservation, and generate innovative thinking in regard to energy problems and solutions. Events included a local dinner with guest speaker, Bill McKibben, a series of ‘Power Potluck’ community dinners in which a group of 8-10 students get together to informally discuss and learn about energy, a two weeklong educational display in the library, a student art show focusing on energy and entropy, and a Watt-A-Thon competition hosted by YouPower, a student run cycling room on campus that produces energy. Other components of the campaign include an initial ‘Perceptions and Practices’ survey, an informational tumblr (middbebright.tumblr.com), posters and table tents in the dining halls with energy facts and tips, featured Middlebury Energy Experts of the week, and photo documentation of ‘Be Bright Energy Pledges’ posted on the tumblr site and our facebook page.

150 students attended the Be Bright dinner kick off with Bill McKibben. The campaign, which concluded in mid-May 2013, received nearly 300 survey results and 150 energy pledges.

In the Spring of 2013, EatReal, a student-run organization at Middlebury College that promotes conscientious consumption among the student body, organized RealFood Week. The week consists of a broad array of academic and extracurricular programming that seeks to engage all facets of the Middlebury community. Events included a campus-wide local dining hall meal, a local dinner event with 100 attendees, a film screening of Ingedients, keynote address focusing on Higher Education’s Role in Creating Sustainable, Just, and Humane Food Systems, organic farming tutorials, panel conversation, and a local food themed trivia night and pub night. The group also created a petition to increase the budget for local food in the dining hall. The EatReal campaign reached the entire student body through campus-wide local dinners and received 1,150 petitions.