As it approaches its 19th year, the Building Bridges Conference has become a signature event on campus that addresses social justice matters on a global scale. The conference has been a rewarding opportunity for students to engage in meaningful dialogue with one another, as well as with experts in the field.  The theme of this year’s Building Bridges Conference will focus on environmental justice.

The announcement of the topic took place on Wednesday, Sept. 18 in the Boardroom.

This year’s conference co-chairs are Junior Mark Zorrilla and Senior Kelly Dumais. The Building Bridges executive board, along with Zorilla and Dumais, consists of returning faculty advisor and Political Science and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Professor Alisa Rosenthal, as well as the previous conference co-chair Senior Rebecca Eastwood, who has returned as a student advisor to the current year’s student co-chairs. New to the executive board is the Director of Multicultural Programs and the Diversity Center Pearl Leonard-Rock.

Although the outline of the conference has not yet been completely finalized, Zorilla is hoping to discuss an array of the consequences of environmental practices.

“This is not a global warming conference. [We hope] to discuss how we use our resources, look at how we dispose things, and how communities are affected. You will see the extreme injustices and see how communities, at whole, are [adversely] affected and targeted specifically,” Zorilla said.

Zorilla hopes to discuss the effects and enacted practices of legislative measures in the U.S. Those connections to factory disposal practices and the effects of health and health care in communities.

“I think that environmental justice illustrates a huge problem in our social conscience that there are disposable communities that we feel that we can just throw away along with our trash, pretend not to see it, and walk away,” Dumais said.

Dumais only recently stepped into the position of co-chair  Tuesday night after the role was recently vacated.

“I was planning on studying abroad. When those plans fell through and I found out this position was open, I jumped at the opportunity. It really illustrates that some things are meant to be,” Dumais said.

Even with the last minute appointment, Dumais has voiced her excitement and high hopes for preparing for the conference.

“I love the idea of leading my peers, creating change, and helping to foster a greater change in social justice in our community. I am a firm believer that you can do more as a group than as an individual. I’m really excited to work with a bunch of people who are just as excited about social justice as I am. You can never underestimate the power of many,” Dumais said.

“For people who have considered this topics, we hope that [what they learn from the conference] will give them a new sense of direction on how to attack this issue,” Zorilla said.

“I’m excited to get out of the bubble [of the conference] and see the impact it has on campus because I feel like that’s what we are here for, to put those changes into place, and see how the environment of [campus evolves],” Zorilla said.

“I think environmental justice is a great choice for Building Bridges this year. It’s of urgent importance both domestically and internationally. Recognizing that the burdens and effects of waste, pollution, and climate change fall unequally on populations in and out of the U.S. and thinking about how to address that and prevent its repetition is perfectly in line with the mission of Building Bridges,” Rosenthal said.