Inaugural UMEF Held May 4, 2021

The UMass Energy Forum, a collaborative effort of the UMass Energy Transition Institute, the UMass iCons Program, the UMass Wind Energy Fellows Program, and the UMass Clean Energy Extension was held on Tuesday, May 4, 2021.

UMEF is a new initiative for students, faculty, and staff across the UMass Amherst campus to present their work on clean energy, climate, and decarbonization. UMEF was open to all fundamental and applied areas of energy research and climate action work including (but not limited to) work in STEM, social sciences, humanities, business, and interdisciplinary studies and consisted of parallel poster sessions and a panel discussion on UMass ELEVATE.

Check out the recording.

News Highlights

UMass iCons Program Sparks Creative Thinking to Address Student Anxiety

On October 22, 2024, the UMass iCons Program hosted the annual Idea Slam. This event urges students to think creatively and collaboratively to hypothesize potential solutions to real-world issues, with a particular focus this year on addressing the epidemic of student anxiety. Presentations delivered by thought leaders Dr. Melissa Rotkiewicz, the director of the UMass Amherst Center for Counseling and Psychological Health (CCPH), and Brian Pearson, the founder of Adventure East, prepared participants for the issue at hand: the epidemic of student anxiety.

In 2016, Marinna Teixeira graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a degree in Environmental Sciences and a minor in French. Having emigrated from Brazil at a young age, Marinna was the first woman in her family to graduate from university and has achieved profound accomplishments since. After joining the UMass iCons Program as a freshman, she befriended peers who dreamed of professional accomplishments like hers. As a member of the third iCons cohort, the Third Axis, her participation in the undergraduate program fell under the Renewable Energy track where she pursued her interest in climate change mitigation.

Heather Bortolussi '24 and Fay Paicos '24, both recent graduates of the Environmental Science program and the UMass iCons Program at UMass Amherst, discovered that an iCons classroom is not just the beginning of a professional toolkit but a gateway to enriching experiences beyond academia. Their journey began in an iCons 2 classroom, where their teamwork sparked a friendship that extended far beyond those four walls, taking them all the way to Thailand for a study abroad adventure.

Inaugural UMEF Held May 4, 2021

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