Dixie Forum to End Semester with Earth Day Presentation

Dixie Forum to End Semester with Earth Day Presentation

[one_third padding="0 10px 0 0"] sustainability-logo [/one_third][two_third] Friday, April 17th, 2015 Dixie State University's "Dixie Forum: A Window on the World" series will come to a completion for the spring 2015 semester on Tuesday, April 21, with a presentation celebrating Earth Day. Dixie State's Sustainability Club [/two_third] president, professors and students will present from noon to 12:50 p.m. in the Dunford Auditorium in the Browning Resource Center on the DSU campus. Admission is free and the public is encouraged to attend. Sustainability Club President Trevor Anderson, professors Kelly Bringhurst and Rico Del Sesto, and Missy Jessop, Keiran Presland, Brett Stanfield and Alena Weida — students in Theda Wrede's English class — will offer a presentation that observes the 45th anniversary of Earth Day. Celebrated on April 22, Earth Day recognizes the modern environmental movement. A Southern Utah native, Anderson earned an associate degree from Dixie State in 2007. He then attended Southern Utah University, where he received a bachelor's in psychology. He is currently seeking a degree in secondary education in biology. Bringhurst is the department chair for Dixie State's Physical Science Department and holds bachelor's and master's degrees in geology and a doctorate in environmental science. As part of teaching environmental science lecture and field courses, Bringhurst takes his students to a variety of interesting locations, including Catalina Island, Costa Rica and Zion National Park. An assistant professor of chemistry at Dixie State University, Del Sesto has bachelor and doctorate degrees in chemistry. For nearly 20 years he has been performing research at the interface of organic, materials, and analytical chemistry. Currently, he is developing materials that are capable of enhanced extraction for analytical method development, materials that enhance the efficacy of antibiotics, and unique materials with interesting optical and magnetic behavior. During her time in St. George, Jessop, a senior studying English with an emphasis in literary studies, has learned to appreciate the beautiful desert landscape. Backpacking and canyoneering in the tangle of slot canyons of southern Utah have instilled in her a deep sense of reverence for the desert. Presland, a senior majoring in English with an emphasis in literary studies, enjoys land-based literature as well as modern and postmodern novels. He loves to be outside in the canyons with a notebook and a pen. Stanfield grew up in the rural Midwest and moved to St. George from Portland, Ore. He is studying creative writing at Dixie State and his fiction and poetry have appeared in The Nighthawk Review, Caesura and The Golden Walkmen Magazine. Weida is a business major from Indianapolis. She is an avid tree-hugger, yogi and equestrian. A natural investigator, she holds curiosity for all outdoor activities. Dixie Forum is a lecture series designed to introduce the St. George community and DSU students, faculty and staff to diverse ideas and personalities while widening their worldviews via a 50-minute presentation. The series will resume after the fall 2015 academic semester gets underway. For more information on Dixie State University's Dixie Forum series, please contact DSU Forum Coordinator John Burns at 435-879-4712 or burns@utahtech.edu or visit www.utahtech.edu/humanities/dixie_forum.php.