2008 Woodie Awards
Words to remember
Conference celebrates 20 years of grad pledge
Ashley Mackin
Issue date: 10/10/07 Section: Campus
- Page 1 of 1
This year's Leadership Conference - Ignite: Lighting the Passion Within, brought in about 150 people from Humboldt County and beyond to draw attention to social and environmental responsibilities.
The conference, which took place Oct. 5 to Oct. 7, collaborated with the Graduation Pledge Alliance to support students and learn how to place personal values into one's work.
Chris DeHart, a careers counselor and adviser for the conference, said he misses the great sense of community the conference created.
"It was heartfelt, informative, inspirational, and experiential," he said. "We [at Humboldt State] don't celebrate ourselves often. We are a distinct campus that embodies important values, which needs to be celebrated more often."
Part of what DeHart appreciated was that it is student-run and created the opportunity for students to relate to one another. Two of the students highly active were student co-coordinators Noelle Perlmutter and John Wu.
Perlmutter said the Pledge is something unique to Humboldt State. "HSU has a tradition of social and environmental responsibility, that's why people come here," she said.
In 1987, the Pledge started at Humboldt. It has since found its way to over 100 schools such as Indiana State University and Harvard, as well as colleges in Taiwan and Australia.
Some of the original founders of the Graduation Pledge returned to Humboldt State for this year's conference - which marks the 20th anniversary of Pledge's activity on campus.
For Perlmutter, there is a long-term significance to keeping the pledge going. She said, "We, as a generation, are at a point where we can turn [wrong] things around for the next generation - social and environmental ideas are pivotal for our generation."
Those social and environmental issues were major topics at this year's conference. Wu said, "There were a lot of environmental and social issues such as gender, race, and class in the workshops."
There were also career workshops with speakers from local businesses such as JessiCurl and the Arcata Community Recycling Center that talked about how they got involved in their careers.
DeHart said, the Pledge is about "making a living by making a difference" and values-based decision making in the workforce.
In an online posting on May 20, Ingrid K. Loesch commented on her experience with the pledge. "I think the Pledge is fantastic. I came up to see some of my friends graduate and I was impressed with the notion of pledging to keep with social and environmental ethics in seeking employment," she said. "It's a great mental framework and I think is very important because there is so much resistance to individuals that choose to maintain their values. I spent a couple years in corporate America after being in Humboldt and was ostracized for my commitment to my ethics."
Ashley Mackin can be reached at amackin8@gmail.com
The conference, which took place Oct. 5 to Oct. 7, collaborated with the Graduation Pledge Alliance to support students and learn how to place personal values into one's work.
Chris DeHart, a careers counselor and adviser for the conference, said he misses the great sense of community the conference created.
"It was heartfelt, informative, inspirational, and experiential," he said. "We [at Humboldt State] don't celebrate ourselves often. We are a distinct campus that embodies important values, which needs to be celebrated more often."
Part of what DeHart appreciated was that it is student-run and created the opportunity for students to relate to one another. Two of the students highly active were student co-coordinators Noelle Perlmutter and John Wu.
Perlmutter said the Pledge is something unique to Humboldt State. "HSU has a tradition of social and environmental responsibility, that's why people come here," she said.
In 1987, the Pledge started at Humboldt. It has since found its way to over 100 schools such as Indiana State University and Harvard, as well as colleges in Taiwan and Australia.
Some of the original founders of the Graduation Pledge returned to Humboldt State for this year's conference - which marks the 20th anniversary of Pledge's activity on campus.
For Perlmutter, there is a long-term significance to keeping the pledge going. She said, "We, as a generation, are at a point where we can turn [wrong] things around for the next generation - social and environmental ideas are pivotal for our generation."
Those social and environmental issues were major topics at this year's conference. Wu said, "There were a lot of environmental and social issues such as gender, race, and class in the workshops."
There were also career workshops with speakers from local businesses such as JessiCurl and the Arcata Community Recycling Center that talked about how they got involved in their careers.
DeHart said, the Pledge is about "making a living by making a difference" and values-based decision making in the workforce.
In an online posting on May 20, Ingrid K. Loesch commented on her experience with the pledge. "I think the Pledge is fantastic. I came up to see some of my friends graduate and I was impressed with the notion of pledging to keep with social and environmental ethics in seeking employment," she said. "It's a great mental framework and I think is very important because there is so much resistance to individuals that choose to maintain their values. I spent a couple years in corporate America after being in Humboldt and was ostracized for my commitment to my ethics."
Ashley Mackin can be reached at amackin8@gmail.com
Be the first to comment on this story