Category: Notables

New Community Effort Grows and Shares Fresh Food in the Western UP

by Angie Carter, Social Sciences

Growing from the Heart is a new grassroots initiative working to increase access to fresh, local, and nourishing food in Western UP communities this summer. Individual gardeners, groups, and organizations may sign up to be partners in this collective effort by growing food, making land available for food growing, or being a site for food redistribution.

“This program is a beautiful way to share good energy with our community as we grow things from the heart and put that energy into that good food,” explained Kathleen Smith, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) enrolled member, Habitat Specialist at KBIC Natural Resources Department, and Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College Board Member.

The Down to Earth Gardening Collective, a new food growing movement started by Michigan Tech students, believes that because food is a basic human need, the commodification and privatization of food leads to the commodification of human life. It  hopes to challenge that notion and create a more communal food system by pooling our land, labor and love.

Information about how to sign up to grow and share food, or how to sign up to be a site for food redistribution, can be found on the Western UP Food Systems Council website. The Western UP Food Systems Council is a regional initiative supporting strengthened food systems in our region. We invite community members and organizations to join in this work of reconnection to our food, one another, and our home. As we grow and redistribute food, we work together toward food sovereignty for all. Questions can be emailed to wupfoodsystems@gmail.com.

Commencement Celebration

On Friday, May 1st the Department of Social Sciences held a virtual commencement celebration honoring its 2019-20 graduates. 

Play 2020 Department of Social Sciences Graduation Celebration video
Preview image for 2020 Department of Social Sciences Graduation Celebration video

2020 Department of Social Sciences Graduation Celebration

“We are marking an important milestone in the lives of our graduates. Graduates, you are ending one phase of your formal education and beginning a new phase of your lives.”

Hugh Gorman, Department Chair, Social Sciences

Speakers

  • President Richard Koubek
  • Dean David Hemmer
  • Dr. Mayra Sanchez Morgan
  • Ph.D. Candidate Will Lytle
  • Professor Emerita Dr. Carol A. Maclennan

Professor Mark Rhodes provided a musical interlude “Theme from Star Trek Voyager” on trumpet and recent anthropology graduate, Charles Fugate read the poem “In April” by Rainer Maria Rilke. Undergraduate awards were presented and the names of our graduates were read. The musical closing was provided by the Pep Band and Blizzard.

Congratulations to all. We wish you continued success.

“You persevered, and along the way you made a lasting imprint on our campus community.”

Rick Koubek, President
Musical Interlude provided by Professor Mark Rhodes

Social Sciences Graduates 2019-2020

Doctor of Philsophy

Erin Burkett, Environmental and Energy Policy, PhD
Brent J. Burns, Environmental and Energy Policy, PhD
Mayra Sanchez Morgan, Environmental and Energy Policy, PhD
Andrew Mueller, Industrial Heritage and Archaeology, PhD

Master of Science

Karuna Rana, Environmental and Energy Policy, MS
Sun Van Nguyen, Environmental and Energy Policy, MS
Michael Levi Ryan, Environmental and Energy Policy, MS
Azat Turegeldin, Environmental and Energy Policy, MS
Robert John Zupko, Environmental and Energy Policy, MS
Tyler D. Allen, Industrial Heritage and Archaeology, MS
Brendan J. Doucet, Industrial Heritage and Archaeology, MS
Josef Thomas Iwanicki, Industrial Heritage and Archaeology, MS

Bachelor of Science

Charles R. Fugate, BS Anthropology
Bridget E. Quesnell, BS Anthropology
Trenton X. Woodcox, BS Social Sciences -Law and Society
Jessica M. Berryman, BS Social Sciences -Law and Society
Catherine A. Carra, BS Social Sciences -Education
Jason D. Sutherland, BS Social Sciences-Education

Undergraduate Awards

Outstanding Senior Award

Jessica Berryman and Charles Fugate

Undergraduate Research Awards

Alannah M Woodring and Lynette S Webber

Community-Based Research Prize

Angela Gutierrez and Timothy Stone

Departmental Scholar 2020

Timothy Stone

Dean David Hemmer addresses the graduates

Local Student Succeeds at National Science Competition with Mentoring from Michigan Tech

Siona Beaudoin, a junior at Lake Linden-Hubbell High School, spent the past year working on a research project with Tara Bal (CFRES) Angie Carter, Social Sciences (SS). Her project focus was on the invasive fruit fly Spotted Wing Drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (SWD) and the public’s knowledge of SWD, along with their berry picking/foraging practices.

She presented her research at the Wisconsin, Upper Peninsula of Michigan Regional Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in February and qualified for the national symposium.

Recently, she virtually defended her research in the Life Sciences Poster Competition at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium where she was awarded third place. Beaudoin is currently summarizing the research to be published with Bal and Carter.

Rhodes Elected to CGSG Board

Mark Rhodes has been elected to the Executive Board of the Cultural Geography Specialty Group (CGSG). As the seventh largest of the 76 American Association of Geographers specialty groups, CGSG provides a network for its 500+ members while also organizing symposia, sponsored-sessions, marquee speakers and socials, granting awards and elevating the spatially of cultural perspectives throughout the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Rhodes will serve a two-year term as Nominations Director.