Earth Week celebration returns to campus
Utah State University honored Earth Day with a 10-day celebration that invited students to get outside, give back and reconnect with the environment.
From April 13–23, the annual series brought together the USU Christensen Office of Service & Sustainability and other campus organizations to host a mix of returning favorites and new events, all centered on community involvement and environmental awareness.
Marcy Smith, the student sustainability engagement lead for COSAS, said it is her job to put together the activities.
“We just generally tried to plan a variety of types of events,” Smith said. “Some of them are more like making a craft, some of them are more service and some of them are more like, just be outside and look at nature.”
Some events held last year, like the “Bike to Breakfast” ride-along and the “Beeswax Wraps” craft day, were held again, but this year, Smith and the Earth Week committee wanted to put a greater emphasis on collaboration with the campus community.
“I know there’s a lot of great clubs and organizations already on campus that are already doing really great sustainability, nature-related events,” Smith said. “We were like, ‘Okay, great. You guysplan your event, and then we’ll incorporate it into our Earth Week marketing and spread the word.’”
COSAS collaborated with birdwatchers, the USU Yoga Club and the USU Student Organization for Society and Natural Resources, or SOSNR, to host some new events, like the “Birdwatching Walk,” “Earth Yoga” and a “Tribute to the Earth Concert.”
SOSNR’s “Tribute to the Earth Concert” had live music, food trucks and student art vendors. The club’s founders echoed the sentiment that community was a main focus of the event.
“We can kind of get stuck focused on, like, individual action, and we can’t do these events by ourselves,” said SOSNR co-founder Marie Wood. “I think that it creates positivity and hope when we see that other people care about something we care about.”
SOSNR was renewed last semester by Wood and Mya Karbasi. The club helps students connect with and get involved in climate activism and environmental policy.
“There’s a lot of inherent desire in a lot of people our age to help out with environmental stuff, but they don’t necessarily know how to do that,” Wood said. “We wanted to have a club that helped connect [students] to those opportunities.”
For Karbasi, events put on by SOSNR and COSAS can act as gateways to help get students more involved in their interests.
Sydnie Fonoti Earth Week event schedules are seen on April 15.
“You can go out and take action on things that you feel strongly about, and all you need is a little push from someone,” Karbasi said. “It can help bring people who wouldn’t otherwise come to these events and might realize that they actually are interested.”
Smith said introducing students to new ways of thinking was another important consideration when planning the events.
“They give students ideas about how to be creative or how to be more sustainable when it comes to how they interact with the environment,” Smith said.
To do this, they held events like the “Sew & Swap,” where students learned to upcycle old clothes, and the “Beeswax Wraps” event, where students learned how to make reusable alternatives to plastic wrap or Ziploc bags.
“A lot of our events are not necessarily trying to just teach you a lesson,” Smith said. “It’s more about having a space where students can come and meet other people who are also passionate about environmental issues.”
Event attendees shared similar thoughts.
“Sometimes, you feel isolated in your passion for the environment, I guess I would say,” said Anna Hansen, a junior studying forest ecology. “I think it’s awesome to meet a bunch of like‑minded people.”
Overall, Smith said the week was intended to celebrate the planet and teach each other how to be better members of it.
“I think just generally, it is important to talk about sustainability and protecting the environment and just having discourse about that,” Smith said. “I think being more connected with and more aware of the people you’re around and the places you’re in can help you to be more sustainable and just have a better life overall.”
Whether through crafting, gardening or birdwatching, the week offered students a chance to engage with sustainability in ways that felt personal and approachable.
“I feel like the best way to promote hope is by planting that seed in someone and being like, ‘It’s literally in you,’” Karbasi said. “‘It’s just what you want to do with it.’”