Every year, the Office of Sustainability hosts the 13 Days of Green to celebrate and promote sustainability on campus. One highlight of the 13 Days of Green is the Oak Awards, which are presented to a student, faculty member, staff member, and organization who have made an impact on Colgate’s campus sustainability.
The Oak Award winners were announced at the Green Summit on Tuesday April 11.
The student winner is Marielle Scheffers ‘19, an environmental studies major and co-president of the Beekeeping Club. Marielle has worked as the environmental studies office assistant since her sophomore year and also worked as a summer intern with the Office of Sustainability. When asked about her involvement in sustainability at Colgate, Marielle responded, “When I came to Colgate, I was very excited to see they had such an active sustainability office, and I just wanted to participate in everything! It has been such a great opportunity to learn from faculty and students who participated in sustainability over the years.”
The faculty winner is Margaretha Haughwout, assistant professor of art and art history. Over the last two years, Professor Haughwout has worked with students and faculty to create 6th E. Street, a series of murals in the tunnels connecting Olin, Wynn, and McGregory that depict the anthropocene, our choices and Colgate's role. Additionally, she organized the Grafters X event in April and created a Food Forest Studio at Colgate last year.
The staff winner is Kat Pritts, junior designer for communications. Kat was instrumental in creating programs for the New York State of Sustainability Conference, which Colgate hosted in November. She is also a frequent volunteer at the Community Garden.
The organization winner is ITS. In an initiative led by Ahmad Khazaee and Bill Miller, the ITS department worked with SGA to reduce the paper waste associated with printing. ITS has moved printers next to each other in the library and have plans to work with their programming team to explore how to make Web Print more accessible and customized to student settings and preferences.
We thank our awardees for their dedication to promoting sustainable action at Colgate.