University of Georgia to host 150+ attendees at the Southeastern Student Sustainability Conference on Feb. 23

By Makenna Reavis

Students from 16 southeast schools gather for a presentation at the Southeastern Student Sustainability Conference in 2020 at Appalachian State University. The University of Georgia is set to host this annual event on Feb. 23. (Photo/ App State 125 website)

Editors Note: This event was postponed due to unforeseen circumstances

The University of Georgia will host college students from Georgia and nearby states at the 2024 Southeastern Student Sustainability Conference. Sessions will begin at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 23 and end at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 25.

About 150 attendees are expected, which is the highest in the history of the conference. Included in the guest list are students from Clemson University, Duke University, Emory University, the Georgia Institute of Technology and more. This will be the University of Georgia’s first time hosting this event.

This year’s conference will follow three themes – knowledge, networking and navigation – with presentations from about 15 student speakers from multiple schools.

Liora McElvaney, fourth-year environmental health major and leader in planning this year’s Southeastern Student Sustainability Conference, said that the conference is important for exposing people to the many issues that sustainability covers.

“There’s a really intense intersection with the social side, ethical side, economic side, and also the environmental side,” McElvaney said, “so it’s just important for people to engage with that.”

Friday’s session will be held at the Delta Innovation Hub, then the conference will move to the Miller Learning Center for the Saturday and Sunday sessions. Other locations will also be hosting presentations.

Tours of the UGArden on Milledge Avenue will be held throughout the weekend. Campus Kitchen will be hosting a cooking demonstration at its food trailer and a tree planting event will also occur.

The conference will highlight Athens food by providing four meals throughout the weekend, including food from Big City Bread Cafe, Maepole, The Farm Cart and Donderos’ Kitchen.

The conference was originally hosted at Green Quad’s Learning Center for Sustainable Futures at the University of South Carolina from 2012 to 2020 until it was decided that the conference could be held at other schools in the Southeast.

McElvaney is hopeful that this year’s conference will make lasting impacts on the other schools in attendance.

“I really just hope they leave inspired and can take some of the things they learned here back to their campus and make change there, as well,” she said.

Why I Wrote the Story:

Researching and writing the event preview story for the Southeastern Student Sustainability gave me the opportunity to find out everything I possibly could about what the event was about, what was going to happen there, and key attendees. This prepared me for knowing what was newsworthy and needed to be reported during my coverage of the event. This event was a major one in my beat at UGA, and would give me access to connections with sustainability representatives from UGA and other schools. However, I had to practice flexibility when that event was postponed and pivot to covering another event.