Tag: University of Vermont

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, “New York Times” bestselling author and founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, will give the keynote speech during a week of events included in the University of Vermont’s annual MLK Celebration, Education and Learning Series, January 21-30.

An acclaimed historian, Kendi leads a first-of-its-kind center in Washington, D.C., dedicated to eliminating racist policies that perpetuate racism and racial inequity in America. His book “Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America” won the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction and his recent book, “How to Be an Antiracist,” is a “New York Times” bestseller. Kendi is a contributing writing for “The Atlantic,” in which he writes thought-provoking essays about race in America and racial inequity for the publication’s “Ideas” column. He is a professor of history and international relations at American University.

Tickets are free and required for Kendi’s keynote speech on Tuesday, January 28. Tickets will be available online or at the Miller Information Desk, located on the third floor of UVM’s Dudley H. Davis Center, beginning January 21 for the UVM community and January 24 for the general public.

All events included in the 2020 MLK Celebration, Education and Learning Series are free and open to the general public, with the exception of Damien Sneed’s “We Shall Overcome” performance. This year’s events include:

• MLK Happy Birthday Party: Birthday cake and refreshments will be served to mark the life, legacy and 93rd birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  Tuesday, January 21 | 11:30 am – 1:30 pm | Dudley H. Davis Center, first floor

• MLK Health Equity Lecture, Featuring Mercedes Carnethon: Cardiovascular disease epidemiologist Mercedes Carnethon will present “Racial Segregation and Obesity: An Unhealthy Connection.” Carnethon is a professor of preventative medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, where she studies cardiovascular disease and focuses on health behaviors among various populations defined by race/ethnicity, age and gender. 
  Wednesday, January 22 | 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm | Larner Medical Education Center, Sullivan Classroom, Room 200

• Damien Sneed’s “We Shall Overcome”: Inspired by the words and actions of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Sneed presents a repertoire of African-American music traditions that moved generations of civil rights activists. Performed with the Burlington Ecumenical Gospel Choir, “We Shall Overcome” spans the lineage of music and culture from traditional and modern gospel, jazz, Broadway and more, accentuated by excerpts from King’s speeches. Discounted tickets are available for $10 to students, faculty and staff who purchase tickets in-person at the Flynn Tix Regional Box Office lobby window and present a valid UVM ID. (Limited to one discounted ticket per UVM student and two discounted tickets per faculty/staff member.)
  Wednesday, January 22 | 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm | Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, 153 Main Street, Burlington

• MLK Gospel Music Commemorative Concert, Featuring the New Alpha Gospel Choir: The New Alpha Gospel Choir is the music ministry of the New Alpha Missionary Baptist Church, host of the annual Gospel Fest and founder of the Burlington Ecumenical Gospel Choir, a racially, culturally and religiously diverse choir of Vermonters.
  Thursday, January 23 | 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm | Ira Allen Chapel, 26 University Place, Burlington

• Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Keynote Speech by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi: UVM welcomes historian and bestselling author Dr. Ibram X. Kendi as the 2020 MLK Celebration keynote speaker. Kendi joins an impressive roster of past speakers, including former NCAA Chair Benjamin Jealous, BET News host and professor of media studies Dr. Marc Lamont Hill and the “smallest freedom fighter” named by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Sheyann Webb-Christburg. This is a ticketed event. Tickets are free and available to UVM community beginning January 21 and to the general public beginning January 24 online or during business hours at the Miller Information Desk, located on the third floor of UVM’s Dudley H. Davis Center.
  Tuesday, January 28 | 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm | Ira Allen Chapel, 26 University Place, Burlington
  

• Lift Every Voice: Celebrating Our Creativity and Commitment: A diverse group of artists share their creative responses to oppression and injustice, and celebrate love, resilience and resistance through spoken word, movement and more.
  Thursday, January 30 | 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm | Interfaith Center, 400 S. Prospect Street, Burlington

These events are organized by the Office of the Vice President for Human Resources, Diversity and Multicultural Affairs in collaboration with President Suresh V. Garimella, Department of Student Life, Larner College of Medicine and the Interfaith Center.

To request a disability-related accommodation, please contact the Office of Diversity, Engagement and Professional Development at (802) 656-8833.

Source: UVM News

Each spring the UVM Dance Program presents Dancing Uphill, a four-day performance event featuring original choreography created by UVM faculty, students and professional guest artists. One of the guests for this year’s event January 22-25 is Lauren Blue ’12, who returned to campus two days before the start of spring semester classes to develop an original work in collaboration with 12 UVM students. 

Blue works as a teacher, choreographer, company owner and performer in New York City—she’s currently involved with The Children and Teens Program at New York City’s Broadway Dance Center. UVM students understand they are in the company of someone who shares a deep connection with UVM and who is also deeply immersed in the world of professional dance.  

“I hadn’t met the students before arriving here yesterday (Saturday, January 11),” Blue said. “So we just plunged right in. In any new project, I like to spend a lot of time just sitting in a circle, connecting with each person and building a group identity. We sat in a circle and just talked. The work will come and we’ll work hard, but first there needs to be that connection, that sense of joint enterprise.”

By late Sunday afternoon, students in the new Cohen Hall Dance Studio were finishing up a long day of rehearsal on different segments of Blue’s piece called “DUSK.” 

Senior Mickenzie Zadworny ‘20, who will graduate in May as part of the first class of dance majors at UVM, thinks the close relationship between the dancers is another factor in creating art in a compressed amount of time. 

“I feel like as a dancer at UVM we know each other really well. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and that all contributes to a successful collaboration,” she said.

***

Blue grew up in New Jersey and began taking baby tap lessons at the age of three. By middle school she was performing jazz, hip hop, and ballet, and competed on a local studio dance team. In high school she joined a dance company where she found opportunities to create and choreograph new pieces.

When she arrived at UVM, dancing wasn’t a major. Blue loved reading and writing poetry, and she figured a major in English would help prepare her for a job in the arts. But throughout her undergraduate career at UVM, dance remained her passion and she took as many classes as she could. 

“As a first-year student I got a job teaching dance in a studio in St. Albans.” She said. “So I just ran with that. Later I worked at another studio in Waterbury.”

After graduation Blue jumped into the New York City dance scene—her original ambition was to work as a commercial dancer but finally decided teaching and choreography were her true paths.

“The work I was developing was very raw but very much a part of me—I realized I had a voice I wanted to share and a style I wanted to hone and honor.”

She established a company of ten dancers that present show around the city. 

“We also brought the group up to UVM a couple years ago for the dance program’s 10-year reunion,” Blue said. “We presented work for Dancing Uphill—it was an exciting experience for all of us.”

Blue has remained in touch with several UVM mentors including professor and chair of the dance department Paul Besaw. She took some time out from her busy schedule in New York—she typically teaches six days a week—to return to Burlington to work with current students on another Dancing Uphill show.

***

Blue moves gracefully in and out of the group of dancers, pausing frequently to demonstrate a technique or work through a blocking problem. “What do you think?” she often asks, listening to student input. 

At the end of the session the group runs through the entire five-minute piece for the first time. Applause breaks out spontaneously as the dancers, concentrating hard on the complex sequence of steps and movements, complete the piece with no mishaps.

When the cheering and relieved sighs dissipate, Blue does a quick review of the day’s progress. 

“We’re really not dancing yet,” she reminds the students. “We have to live with this for a bit. Tomorrow we’ll really work on bringing emotion to the movements.”

As the students stretch and relax, Blue talks about her own career as a student and as a teacher. She says it’s easy to get stale as a performer and choreographer, and she still takes dance classes herself. 

“I still see myself as a student –there’s always something more that we can learn and give. Working with young dancers is another way to refresh your viewpoint. It’s an awesome experience to create something that just starts as an idea—in a few days we have created a work of art.”

Dancing Uphill 2020 is Wednesday-Saturday, January 22 – 25, 7:30 p.m. at the Mann Gymnasium (Trinity Campus). Tickets: $10 for students; $15 general admission. Tickets can be purchased in person at the Royall Tyler Theatre box office, or online.

 

 

 

 

Source: UVM News

Researchers at the University of Vermont have teamed up with scientists around the U.S. to tackle agriculture’s grand challenge of feeding the world’s growing population while conserving natural resources and reducing its environmental footprint. Using precision agriculture tools, network analysis, artificial intelligence and machine learning, the project will analyze cover cropping strategies at over 100 farms throughout the East Coast and Midwest and survey farmers and advisors across 20 states with the goals of improving profit for farmers and building more sustainable food systems.

The five-year project has been awarded $10 million from the USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI)’s Sustainable Agricultural Systems program, the nation’s leading and largest competitive grants program for agricultural sciences. The project is one of eight awarded and involves nearly 100 scientists from 35 institutions across the U.S. UVM Extension professor Heather Darby and UVM Food Systems and Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences assistant professor Meredith Niles both serve on the project’s executive committee, providing leadership in regenerative agriculture and the social science aspect of the research.

“There’s nothing else like this, it’s very unique,” said Darby, who will be leading on-farm trials at 10 different sites in Vermont starting next year. “This is really taking the research and knowledge that we have and being able to deploy it on hundreds and hundreds of farms across our region.” 

Cover crops, often plants such as legumes, grasses and brassicas, are grown to protect and regenerate soil and improve water nutrient and pest management, but are not typically harvested for cash income. Combining cover crops with sustainable agricultural practices like reduced tillage, diversified crop rotations and integrated weed management can increase soil health, allowing for more climate-resilient production of food and fiber and greater yields for farmers. However, cover cropping strategies may vary depending on weather, climate and growing conditions.

Advances in sensor technology, on-farm monitoring systems and cloud-based platforms have enabled massive amounts of data to be collected in real time. The research team will deploy these technologies across its 100 field trial sites and use machine learning and artificial intelligence to begin to predict optimal strategies for farmers based on their crop and environmental conditions.

“There’s power in numbers. The goal is to be able to amass consistent data from sites all over the East Coast and Midwest so we can actually start to predict how much nitrogen people get from cover crops and how much water holding capacity is created from growing cover crops,” said Darby. “We’re developing decision support tools that will take the data and make it palatable for farmers. That’s who we’re doing this work for,” said Darby.

To better assist farmers, Niles will be conducting a national network analysis to understand how and where farmers receive information about cover cropping strategies and how their networks may influence uptake and maintenance of cover crops.

“Never before have researchers mapped farmer information networks for cover crops at this scale,” said Niles. 

The network analysis, which will be conducted through a series of surveys to farmers and agricultural advisors, will be deployed across 20 states. Field trials are expected to begin in Vermont in late summer 2020 and the farmer surveys will begin in 2021.

Source: UVM News

The Urban Institute, with support from Arnold Ventures, announced on January 13 the establishment of the Prison Research and Innovation Network. The network is a core component of the Urban Institute’s Prison Research and Innovation Initiative, a comprehensive effort to build evidence and spur innovation to make prisons more humane, safe, and rehabilitative.

The network will use research, data, and evidence to inspire improvements in prison environments. Five states have been chosen for Phase I of the project—Colorado, Delaware, Iowa, Missouri and Vermont.

As one of the participants, Vermont’s State Department of Corrections will receive a grant of $100,000 to support the hiring of a full-time prison research innovation manager to work onsite in the pilot facility at Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, Vt. The University of Vermont will receive an additional $100,000 annually to partner with the Department of Corrections to engage in research activities and help build the state’s capacity for data and research for justice-related issues.

Kathy Fox, UVM professor of sociology, and Abigail Crocker, research assistant professor of statistics, are the UVM faculty members who are teaming up to assist the Department of Corrections in developing the research methodology and analyzing the data. 

“Participation in the Prison Research and Innovation Network is a great opportunity for Vermont to work on prison reform efforts, benefiting from a learning community of experts across the country,” says Crocker. “Grounding the process in data and research will ensure that we understand the impact of our efforts and ensure the changes we make are moving us in a positive direction. We’re excited to partner with our colleagues at the Vermont Department of Corrections and learn with and from the other state’s participating in the Network.”

The guidelines for acceptance into the Network required states to identify a specific correctional facility, with at least a 300-person capacity, to pilot their change efforts. The plan is to learn from these initial efforts and expand successful findings to other facilities across the state. 

The University of Vermont is already an active collaborator with the Vermont State Department of Corrections through the Liberal Arts in Prison Program (LAPP) established in 2017 and directed by Fox. UVM faculty members have since taught university-level courses in the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility for women in South Burlington and Northwest State Correctional Facility for men in Swanton, Vt.

“We’re able to bring our knowledge of the criminal justice system and research expertise to identify promising policies that maintain public safety while reducing costs and creating a more equitable and effective criminal justice system,” Fox said.

“We look forward to supporting Vermont in its efforts to employ research and data to improve prison culture, operations, and design and create more humane and rehabilitative correction environments,” said Dr. Nancy La Vigne, vice president of justice policy at the Urban Institute. “The state’s leadership and commitment to transparency and accountability will help spur lasting change for people who live and work in prisons.”

The Urban Institute is a leading research organization dedicated to developing evidence-based insights that improve people’s lives and strengthen communities. For 50 years, Urban has been the trusted source for rigorous analysis of complex social and economic issues; strategic advice to policymakers, philanthropists, and practitioners; and new, promising ideas that expand opportunities for all. Urban’s work inspires effective decisions that advance fairness and enhance the well-being of people and places.

Arnold Ventures is a philanthropy dedicated to tackling some of the most pressing problems in the United States. They invest in sustainable change, building it from the ground up based on research, deep thinking, and a strong foundation of evidence. They drive public conversation, craft policy, and inspire action through education and advocacy.

Source: UVM News

While Vermonters support banning food waste from landfills – and a whopping 72 percent already compost or feed food scraps to their pets or livestock – few say they are willing to pay for curbside composting pick-up, new University of Vermont research shows.

The study comes as Vermont prepares to implement a mandatory law that makes it illegal to throw food items in the trash beginning July 1, 2020. Several large cities including San Francisco and Seattle have implemented similar policies, but Vermont is the first state to ban household food waste from landfills. The policy is the last phase of a universal state recycling law passed in 2012 that bans all food waste, “blue bin” recyclables and yard debris from landfills statewide by 2020.

“Reducing household food waste is a powerful way individuals can help reduce the impacts of climate change and save money,” said Meredith Niles, UVM Food Systems and Nutrition and Food Sciences assistant professor and lead author of the study. “Vermont has made a significant commitment to this effort and it’s exciting to see the majority of Vermonters are already composting to do their part.”

Previous research by Niles and other UVM colleagues showed Americans waste nearly a pound of food daily, roughly one third of a person’s recommended daily calories. When disposed of in a landfill, food waste rots and produces methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Conversely, composting can aid in carbon sequestration and creates a natural fertilizer for farms and gardens. 

While several states and municipalities are exploring food waste strategies, few studies have examined food waste perceptions and behaviors in rural communities. 

“The trend in big cities has been to offer curbside compost pickup programs, especially in densely populated areas, but there isn’t a one size fits all for how we manage food waste,” said Niles. “Our study suggests that, especially in more rural areas, people may already be managing their food waste in a way that leaves it out of the landfills.”

Niles surveyed nearly 600 households through the 2018 state Vermonter Poll, conducted annually by UVM’s Center for Rural Studies. The study showed support for the new food waste ban, but only a minority of residents indicated they would be willing to pay for a future curbside compost pickup program. People in urban counties were significantly more likely to want curbside compost pickup compared to those managing their food waste through backyard composting or by feeding to pets or livestock.

“In a rural state like Vermont, households are generally further apart, which can increase food waste transport costs and have a negative environmental impact, especially if participation in a curbside compost program is low,” said Niles, who is also a fellow at UVM’s Gund Institute for Environment. “Instead, focusing curbside programs in densely populated areas may be more cost and environmentally effective and also garner greater household participation.”

Research has shown the rates of home composting in Vermont are much higher than in other regions. One third of Vermonters indicated they are exclusively composting or feeding food scraps to pets or livestock, with no food scraps ending up in the trash. This research suggests that investing in education, outreach and infrastructure to help households manage their own food waste could have significant environmental and economic impacts in other rural regions seeking food waste management solutions.

Individuals interested in learning home composting techniques may consider participating in the Vermont Master Composter course offered online each fall by UVM Extension or consult the cooperative extension service in their home state.

The Vermonter Poll is a statistically representative, statewide telephone poll of Vermont residents conducted annually since 1990. The poll offers a unique opportunity for researchers, policymakers and organizations to examine public opinion on a range of contemporary issues in the public arena.

The questions analyzed for this study were sponsored by Casella Waste Systems, Inc., through a research grant to UVM. Casella was not involved in the data collection, analysis, interpretation or study results.

Source: UVM News

University of Vermont student-athletes continue to excel at historic levels in the classroom. During the fall semester, UVM student-athletes combined to achieve a school-record GPA of 3.297. It is the 33rd consecutive semester the department GPA has been above 3.0.

“I’m incredibly proud of the collective academic performance of our 400 plus student-athletes,” said Director of Athletics Jeff Schulman. “Their ability to successfully balance academic achievement with the heavy demands of Division I athletics is a testament to their hard work and the commitment of our dedicated faculty, coaches and academic services staff.  We are fortunate to be part of a University that truly believes in—and supports—a scholar-athlete model where academic and athletic excellence can so successfully coexist.”  

There were 32 student-athletes who achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA in the fall semester, with a third of the student-athlete population maintaining a 3.6 GPA. The women’s cross country program had the top GPA in the department at a 3.63. The top men’s team was alpine skiing with a 3.52 GPA. Overall, 16 teams improved their GPA from the spring to this fall, and every team at UVM maintained a GPA of 3.0 or higher.

“Our student-athletes represent UVM’s strengths in a powerful way,” said UVM President Suresh Garimella. “Their discipline and ability to balance—and benefit from—physical and intellectual endeavors will serve them long after graduation.”

For the athletics department, it was the 30th semester on record where student-athletes had a higher GPA than the general student population.

“This is an impressive accomplishment for our scholar-athletes,” said UVM Provost Patty Prelock. “I am proud of our students’ commitment to learning and competing, and the support of their coaches and academic staff.”

This exceptional academic performance comes at a transformational time for UVM Athletics. Construction is underway on the state’s largest athletics, recreation and wellness facility, which includes the Tarrant Center, the new home for UVM’s men’s and women’s basketball programs, as well as space for a variety of academic, social, cultural, and entertainment programming. There will also be major renovations and improvements to historic Gutterson Fieldhouse, home of UVM men’s and women’s hockey, and the Phyllis “Phiddy” Davis ’45 Recreation and Wellness Center.

This will amount to a five-fold increase in the amount of space dedicated to health, wellness and recreation for the entire student body and the broader campus community. View a live construction cam to monitor the progress of the facility project.

Source: UVM News

About six months before he graduated from the University of Vermont in May, Eric Grunfeld launched his startup company and began developing what he believes is a first-of-its-kind product.

Since then, he has worked on a patent application for the technology that he hopes eventually to sell to automobile insurance companies to prevent distracted driving. At every step, Grunfeld grappled with numerous questions but knew no one who could answer them.

A UVM friend told him about the new UVM Mentoring Network. Grunfeld searched its database for insurance industry experts who could help him hone his concept. Among them, he found fellow UVM alum Christine Landon.

Landon, class of ’90, worked for years as an actuary for the insurance industry and more recently as an insurance consultant. An entrepreneur with a patent for a hair product she invented, she more recently has delved into crowdfunding with an interest in technology and investment.

Landon not only provided insurance insights but also an enthusiasm for his vision, Grunfeld said. “She was one of the first people I talked to about my idea,” he said. “She’s very motivational.”

After their initial connection, Landon welcomed Grunfeld to stay in touch with her for future questions. They agreed to meet online via Zoom every week, and Landon joined the board of his company, Plugged In. “I just know how to fit the pieces together,” she said.

Such matchmaking between those with expertise and those who need it is the goal of the UVM Mentoring Network, which launched in October 2018. The network can be accessed by anyone in need of business advice, from UVM students and faculty to enpreneurs and business owners in the community. To date, most mentors are experienced UVM alumni like Landon, but community members can also sign up.

Mentees and mentors can join by filling out a form on the Mentoring Network’s website. Mentors can link their LinkedIn profiles, rather than spend time listing their accomplishments and specialties.

Whether it results in a one-time assist or a longterm relationship, the network aims to help budding businesses as they grow, said Richard Galbraith, UVM’s vice president for research.

“It’s basically a sort of dating service for mentors and mentees,” Galbraith said.

Vermont boasts a high number of startups per capita but has less success getting those ventures to scale up into full-fledged companies with active workforces, Galbraith said. Novice owners have told him that they could use advice on setting up payroll, filing taxes, banking, and promoting and marketing their products.

“You need to do everything when you know very little,” Galbraith said. “You’re learning every day. You’re working 20 hours a day to try to make things happen. New things are being thrown at you all the time. You may not have run a business ever in your life. And now you have to think of all the things that businessmen think of every day, have experience with.”

The Vermont economy depends on new businesses starting up, scaling up and becoming successful, Galbraith said. UVM, as a major academic and land-grant institution, should play a role in encouraging that to happen, he said.

“Our mission is to work with and aid and abet the faculty so that their creativity can be translated for the benefit of the people of Vermont,” Galbraith said. “If we don’t find ways to improve the economy of Vermont, then we’re all going to be in trouble. So it literally is a public good.”

Grunfeld agreed that he and other young entrepreneurs “don’t necessarily have the real-world working experience behind you to make sound business decisions,” he said, adding of the Mentoring Network, “This is a great platform to guide people in the right direction.”

Plugged In’s product combines a mobile app and a smart car phone holder that allow parents to monitor and restrict their child’s distracted driving behavior in real time. Grunfeld came up with the product idea as a Community Entrepreneurship major in the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics, where he liked to brainstorm ideas to solve social problems and make cultural change.

“There are countless numbers of lives being lost every year” in accidents involving distracted driving, particularly drivers texting, Grunfeld said. He has partnered with a team of students and faculty in the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences for help developing his prototype.

The UVM Mentoring Network is designed as a quick and ready resource for those who might need an immediate answer on a tight deadline, perhaps a tax form that’s due and needs to be filled out, Galbraith said. He compares the situation to a broken finger. For such an injury, he wouldn’t call his primary care doctor and wait a month for an appointment. He’d go to the emergency room or an urgent care center, get his finger set and go on his way.

“Often, you need an answer today,” he said. “The analogy is: We need this sort of emergency room for business.”

So far, 56 mentors have signed up on UVM Mentoring Network and 36 mentees have joined. Among those, they have made 14 connections. Galbaith hopes the network will grow as word-of-mouth about successful mentor-mentee pairings spreads.

As a UVM alum, Landon received an email about the Mentoring Network and signed up right away, knowing her business and consulting background could prove useful. The network offers a chance to establish UVM as a world-class institution that breeds creative thinkers and ideas “that serve the greater good of humanity,” she said. “And that, to me, is very important.”

 

Source: UVM News

When Kaitlyn Vitez ’15 packed up her New Jersey apartment two years ago to move to Washington, D.C., she wrapped her fragile kitchenware in loose pages from an expensive textbook. It had been required for an economics class she took senior year and, like many textbooks today, was an unbound custom edition for that class, and was ineligible for re-sell or buy-back programs at the end of the semester. The book had become useless to Vitez—an anthropology and global studies graduate—so she utilized it as best she could.

Ironically, on the other end of that move, the job that Vitez had relocated to D.C. for uniquely positioned her to help other graduates and students avoid those same financial frustrations. As the director of the Make Higher Education Affordable campaign at U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), she raises awareness and support for policies that help bring the cost of education down for students and graduates, who collectively owe $1.5 trillion in student loan debt.

Since 1970, the consumer advocacy group U.S. PIRG has strived to protect Americans from powerful special interests that influence a range of industries. “In my case, for example, we’re talking about big textbook publishers and student loan servicers that rip off students,” Vitez says.

An average day for her might involve lobbying congressmembers to increase federal Pell Grant spending, strategizing with other organizations across D.C. or student organizers across the nation on college affordability initiatives, or meeting with Capitol Hill staffers to gain support on legislation that protects students from predatory loans or exorbitant fees at on-campus banks.

But one of her major priorities for reducing student debt goes back to her expensive packing hack. Vitez estimates that textbook prices have risen three times faster than inflation in recent years and cost students roughly $3 billion in financial aid each year. “When you’re registering for classes, you should know how much that class is going to cost,” she says about the sticker shock many students experience only after they’ve enrolled in a class.

She is a fierce proponent of opensource textbooks, which offer students free or low-cost access to quality course materials, and played a crucial role in getting a federal opensource program passed. She even jammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s phoneline with calls from hundreds of students supporting funding for the program, which was expected to save them up to $50 million on course materials each year. Funding for the program was subsequently renewed in the latest federal budget.

“It goes to show the power of organizing and why it’s important that we’re not just getting people to volunteer in their communities, but getting people invested in changing how higher education works, and making their voices heard on a higher level,” she says. “I’m not just fighting for college to be more affordable; I’m getting students to make that call.”

Empowering and organizing students is a skill Vitez has honed since her days at the University of Vermont. As president of the student organization for food justice, Campus Kitchens, she led dozens of volunteers and coordinators each week in shifts at the food pantry in downtown Burlington, designed practica for the nutrition department and oversaw summer interns who tended the garden outside of Jeffords Hall. But she knew that real impact—whether it be in the fight against hunger, access to education or consumer protection—begins with policy.

“I was doing a lot of service work and, fundamentally, I was looking to make a bigger change than putting food on the table for folks after graduation. While service work is really important, what’s more important is preventing people from having to get in line at the food pantry in the first place,” she says. “I wanted to find a job that was going to give me the skills to make larger systemic change and have a much bigger impact.”

Source: UVM News

Revealed in conjunction with the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a first-of-its-kind rating by Positive Impact Rating (PIR) has named the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business among the top echelon of business schools in the world that are emphasizing the importance of social impacts alongside business and economic advancements. The inaugural report, “Positive Impact Rating for Business Schools,” is a new rating conducted by students, for students, and is the product of the first global assessment by students on how well their schools confront business’ societal impacts.

“This adds to our string of accolades that affirm that we have developed the world’s best MBA program to educate students to address the world’s greatest sustainability challenges via the power, ingenuity and innovation of business,” said Sanjay Sharma, dean of the Grossman School of Business. “We welcome the Positive Impact Rating as a global initiative that empowers students in MBA programs all over the world to express their concerns for the future of our planet and how well the program prepares them to become responsible business leaders for the 21st century.”

UVM’s Grossman School of Business, which houses the Sustainable Innovation MBA (SI-MBA) program, was rated at the second-highest level, “level 4: Transforming,” alongside eight other schools worldwide. No school attained the highest level, “level 5: Pioneering,” among the thirty leading schools included in the report.

According to the report, “The nine top-rated schools on level 4 are recognized by their students for including sustainability and societal engagement in their mission and for the degree to which these are seen as a driving force for the school (23 percent higher than average). These schools are also recognized by their students for having a culture that is aligned with their school’s purpose, for most of their people being highly motivated beyond self-interest and for strongly supporting personal development (18 percent higher than average). The positive impact of business schools goes beyond their contribution to business and the economy; it addresses the need for their positive impact for society.”

UVM’s accelerated one-year SI-MBA program directly confronts this value shift by addressing environmental, ethical, poverty and inequality issues through global innovation and enterprise. Unique in its mission, the program replaced UVM’s traditional MBA program upon its creation in 2014, thereby eliminating the potential to “saddlebag” sustainability initiatives to the pre-existing program and truly rebuilding it from the ground up. Today SI-MBA retains the foundational business school toolkit required for graduates to succeed in business, while training future leaders to use business as a tool to make meaningful change in the world. Graduates have gone on to work for companies such as Unilever, Microsoft, and Starbucks, and have also started successful businesses such as Sap! Beverages and Propagate Ventures.

It has been ranked the No. 1 “Best Green MBA” by Princeton Review for the past three consecutive years and was ranked the No. 4 “Better World MBA” by “Corporate Knights,” a leading sustainable business magazine, in 2019. UVM’s SI-MBA team placed first at the inaugural Total Impact Portfolio Challenge last spring, beating out 25 other teams from schools including Wharton, Columbia, Yale and Georgetown in a competition to build financial portfolios that make profits and positive impacts on the world.

“Business schools are traditionally seen to serve students by developing their management competencies and to serve business organizations by providing them with educated talent, insights from research and continuous education for their staff…This new business school rating responds to these demands,” PIR said in a media statement. PIR and its activities are endorsed and supported by WWF Switzerland, OXFAM, Global Compact Switzerland and it is operated in close collaboration with student organizations including oikos International, Net Impact, AIESEC, SOS UK and Studenten voor Morgen.

Source: UVM News