With an enrollment of 550 students, Ancilla College may just have more solar per student than any other college. I haven’t actually verified that because my point isn’t quantitative. Rather, it’s qualitative. It’s about doing what is necessary and what is urgent. DOING. It’s about doing what our youth know that we must and that’s CHANGE. Change the way we produce and consume energy and change the ways in which we think about it. Some schools claim to be “green” and others just go about their business of actually being green.

Put Ancilla College squarely in the ranks of the latter! Pedagogy, leadership, fundamental re-thinking, and action define places like Ancilla. And though it is a “place” it’s also a mindset, a different understanding of the world and ways to go about living sustainably. What could be more important than that right now in our time of planetary crisis.

We’ll be thoroughly honored and excited to be there on Monday, September 23rd to celebrate the tilting of the solar panels for autumnal equinox, to participate in the ribbon cutting of their new 500kW solar array, and to visit with this incredible group. We’ll be giving the Lampen Lecture, which, named after the school’s first president, is for the purposes of bringing together the institutional values and principles of the Catholic Church, the Poor Handmaids (Ancilla is one of its missions), and the Earth Charter together in promoting each individual’s ability to think beyond his or her own experiences and interests.

Some previous related posts are here and here.