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The Indiana Daily Student

Environmental Resilience Institute organizes ‘I Am #HoosierResilient’ video contest

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The Environmental Resilience Institute has partnered with Themester to open the “I Am #HoosierResilient” video contest to promote environmental sustainability to IU students.

Gillian Paxton, the ERI’s graphic designer and communications team member, has been setting up this contest that encourages IUB students to submit a short video on the topic of climate resilience.  

Themester uses a semester theme to engage students in special events and activities throughout campus. The organization has partnered with the ERI because this fall’s theme is resilience, Paxton said. 

“We really want to get students aware of what little things they are doing in their daily lives and how resilience can change the environment,” said Paxton.   

Paxton said environmental resilience in society can branch from things like having multiple cautionary social systems in place, which encompasses preparation for an environmental disaster, numerous cooling centers in the case of extreme heat or shelters during environmental disasters. Environmental resilience can be as small as recycling, using sustainable materials or reducing pollution, she said.  

“I think students are probably doing some things and not necessarily thinking about their impact on the environment,” Jonathan Hines, communications and outreach manager at the ERI, said. “A big part of environmental resilience is understanding our impact on the environment and lowering that carbon footprint.”  

Sammy Stoeber, a sophomore at IU who is interested in the ERI’s video contest, expressed what environmental resilience means to her as a Hoosier. 

“I can remember all the walks I’d go on with my dad as a little girl in the city,” Stoeber said. “More than half the walks we took, I’d watch my dad pick up trash or plastic cans and bottles on street curbs, at playgrounds and other public areas. This video contest is great because it will bring awareness to the little things. It’s those quick and easy moments of just picking up trash or recyclables and disposing of them in the correct fashion that will help make the world a cleaner place.”

Submissions for the contest will be accepted until Nov. 1. According to the ERI’s website, video submissions must be about a minute in length, but no more than two minutes. Participants must also tell the audience how they respond to today’s environmental challenges and why they feel compelled to act. Videos will be judged based on the impact of the video’s message, the potential to engage the audience and the use of creative storytelling. They should focus on being Bloomington specific, Paxton said.   

The contest winner will receive a $400 scholarship, and the runner-up will receive a $300 scholarship. 

Paxton and Hines said the hashtag, #HoosierResilient, is used to form an online community space for outreach about Hoosier environmental resilience. It is also used to reach IU Bloomington students specifically. 

“Hoosier Resilient is something we came up with as a fun way to capture the idea of being resilient,” Hines said. “We highlight people all over the state who embody this idea of resilience, and Hoosiers are generally pretty resourceful people who care about the place they call home. They definitely want to maintain the health of our communities and our spaces by promoting tree canopies, promoting clean energy or ways to reduce pollution.” 

Participants can submit their videos on the ERI website. Any member of the IU community can submit a video, but only IU Bloomington students can receive a scholarship prize. 

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