A group of students from Julia Hellwege's Introduction to American Government course hosted a screening of National Geoprahpic's documentary From The Ashes last night. A mixed group of USD students and townees viewed the film and participated in a lively conversation afterwards. Below you will find a letter I wrote Dr. Hellwege earier this week.
Dr. Hellwege,
Thank you for including the Sierra Club in your Introduction to American Government course this year. I am so impressed with the outstanding efforts of Amber Rae Hulse, Tyler Wenande, Dalton Houska, and Carol (Mia) Exendine. They said they wanted to fight climate change and dived right into it.
The team’s focus was in combining LED lighting with solar panels to save energy. They collaborated with Mr. Mike Carlson, Vermillion’s Financial Officer, to compile comparative statistics and analyze potential benefits and then presented the findings to the Vermillion City Council on November 6, 2017.
They also arranged with Mr. Jason Thiel, Manager of Coyote Twin Theaters in Vermillion and Erin Griffin, National Geographic Channels’ Vice President of Global Communications to present the award winning documentary From The Ashes to students enrolled in Political Science, Earth Science, and Sustainability courses the evening of November 13th, 2017. Finally, as you know, they will present their activities to their peers on November 20, 2017.
Amber Hulse recently wrote, “Our group started as the result of a required school project. Our original goals are now expanding into something we all believe will have a lasting impact on our community, further raising awareness of the benefits of solar power and using LED lights from an economic standpoint as well as an environmental one.”
Thank you again for the opportunity to work with these students. I only wish our family crisis this semester hadn’t prevented me from greater participation but they couldn’t have done any better. They truly are an impressive group.