McKay Jones, UIMF Vice President, and Janessa- Michelle Purcell, UIMF President, take a picture with their presentation visuals.
On Thursday, December 5, 2024 Utah International Mountain Forum President, Janessa- Michelle Purcell and Vice President of Event Operations and Management McKay Jones, participated in the Oxford Map the System (MTS) competition at Utah Valley University. Through the Student- Engaged Learning model, McKay and I, identified a social issue in Utah, focused in on a community if affected and gathered information to present at the night session of the competition where we won first place and a trip to Oxford England this coming summer.
McKay Jones in the midst of the presentation.
The Student-Engaged Learning model encourages UVU students to identify a problem and as a collective to address the real life problem. As leaders of UIMF and in preparations for the upcoming Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) conference at the United Nations, McKay and I wanted to change our approach to formulating our statements for CSW. As we also work at Fellows at the Center for Social Impact that hosted the MTS competition, we combined our interests, me in advocating for Sustainable Mountain Development and McKay in Public Health to come up with our research project: High Concentrations of Air Pollution for Marginalized Groups in West Salt Lake Valley.
Janessa- Michelle Purcell in disbelief after their project placed first in the Map The System Competition.
In the month-long process of researching air pollution and its effects specifically in Utah, we found numerous pollutant contributors, existing interventions and gaps within the system that keeps Utah’s air quality levels the worst in the United States. In our efforts to make a visual of the system at work we were able to interview many different community champions and advocates for policy change in the realm of environmental justice. One particular interview we conducted included a connection to a project also looking at the air pollution in Nepal. Nepal is a mountain community that we have been learning about in our Sustainable Mountain Development class. Making this parallel connection was imperative for us to establish the need to invest in stronger infrastructures in mountain communities. In our research, we have found that air pollution is connected to many aspects of life and needs to be addressed for the health and safety of all Utahns.
McKay and Janessa share a hug after winning the competition.
We dedicated a lot of time and effort to create our visuals and to prepare our final presentation. Spending our Thanksgiving break to ensure we could present the vast amount of information we had collected in a 7 minute presentation was a challenge, but we were able to execute it the best way we could. We have hopes to continue to work with community partners like the Utah Pacific Islander Health Coalition and House of Representative Jake Fitsemanu. While the research aspect was very important, making a difference in this community that has been systematically oppressed and suffers the brunt of environmental injustice is just as important. It is not enough to bring awareness but to also do our part to find a solution.
The winners of the MTS competition pose for a picture.
