UCSB put out the welcome mat on Saturday, April 12, for Spring Insight, the campus’s annual open house. The event introduces admitted and prospective students and their families to the opportunities available to them at UCSB. An estimated 10,000+ guests attended between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Hundreds of faculty and staff members, representing 90 departments, including almost every degree-granting department in the undergraduate colleges, as well as more than 250 student volunteers, make Spring Insight possible. Throughout the day, participants attended their choice of more than 60 concurrent session offerings, including public faculty lectures, numerous special tours, open houses, exhibits, and fairs (source).
The UCSB Department of Geography teamed up with the Sustainability Program to strut their stuff at Spring Insight. Geography participated in the Academic Information Fair, and according to Mo Lovegreen, our Executive Officer, “We had a very successful Spring Insight this year. Both our graduate and undergraduate students worked the tables, and I was told by the Spring Insight coordinators that we had the “best table” at the event! Thanks to the following people that staffed the tables for us: Heather Frazier, Bonnie Bounds, Helen Chen, Kitty Currier, Tim Niblett, Winny Guan, John Solly, Yelizaveta Aleksyuk (Lisa), Matt Conway, Jennifer King, and Dar Roberts. You all did an amazing job and got us a long list of individuals to follow-up with (a new record for the department!).”
Geography and Sustainability held a joint open house in Ellison Hall, and Sustainability also offered tours of the campus to explain what UCSB does to be more sustainable and to show off their diverse efforts in smart campus initiatives, conservation efforts, water reductions, recycling, transportation, green building, climate, food, energy, and more. As Mo put it: “We also held an open house and sustainability/smart campus tours (had our undergraduates participate with I-pads showing off their work on the interactive campus map) and had about sixty people attend the three tours and a number of people that joined us for the open house component. A big thanks to the following people that helped with the open house/tours: Ryan Kelley, Katie Maynard, Jewel Snavely, Jeff Martin, Elissa McBride, Kristyn Arakawa, Nancy Yuv, Sam Goldman, Whitney Jones, Carl Greenfield, Noelle Steele, Garrison Yang, Zac Trafny, Felice Tsui, Ava Cheng, and Qingyun (Rick) Zhang. The feedback on the tours was very positive and the visitors really enjoyed having the undergraduates walk with them and talk about their experience on campus.”
Check out the Spring Insight events on the UCSB Geography Facebook page, and have a look at UCSB Sustainability’s description of their smart campus tours on their Facebook page. Photos of both events will eventually be posted on our 2014 Event Photos page – many thanks to Lisa Gumm, Photography Intern, UCSB Sustainability, and to Ryan Kelley, Geography Undergraduate Adviser, for contributing the photographs.
