{"id":1309925,"date":"2019-05-04T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-05T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/sustainability-in-everything-julia-farwell-does\/"},"modified":"2019-05-04T23:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-05T05:00:00","slug":"sustainability-in-everything-julia-farwell-does","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/sustainability-in-everything-julia-farwell-does\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainability in everything Julia Farwell does"},"content":{"rendered":"
Julia Farwell gets ready for a hug from CMC Campus Dean and Vice President Heather Exby at graduation on the Spring Valley campus while Kevin Hillerman looks on. Farwell was named outstanding Bachelor’s graduate during the ceremony.<\/strong>
E P Kosmicki<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SPRING VALLEY \u2014 When it comes to sustainability, there may not be another Colorado Mountain College student who has done more to make a difference than Julia Farwell. Her five-year journey ended with a Bachelor of Arts in sustainability studies at Saturday\u2019s commencement ceremony at the Spring Valley campus.<\/p>\n

More than 1,000 graduates are receiving degrees and certificates from Colorado Mountain College May 2-6, at 10 different graduation ceremonies held throughout the CMC district. Graduates from Aspen to Glenwood Springs could choose to participate in ceremonies at the college\u2019s Spring Valley campus.<\/p>\n

After growing up in Danville, Illinois, about 120 miles south of Chicago, Farwell earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in anthropology from the University of Illinois and moved to Carbondale in 1996. For 16 years, she worked in the area\u2019s hospitality industry, including management.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided I wanted to do something more meaningful with my life,\u201d she said, so in 2012 she worked for Osage Gardens and took a sustainable agriculture class at Sustainable Settings. It was at Sustainable Settings where she met CMC sustainability students and Adrian Fielder, then instructional chair of sustainability studies and director of the college\u2019s Lappala Center in Carbondale.<\/p>\n

Those experiences piqued her interest in the field of sustainability and two years later she took her first class in the program: Leadership, Ethics and Social Responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hooked,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Another factor that pushed her toward sustainability was growing up playing in the woods in her backyard in Danville.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom instilled a respect for nature in me,\u201d Farwell said.<\/p>\n

Farwell originally wanted to get a certificate in sustainability from CMC, but her counselor urged her to seek a bachelor\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I took one to three classes a semester,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s why it took as long as it did. But it was really rewarding. CMC staff and faculty are really caring; they are passionate about helping students with whatever it is they need to be able to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farwell had an internship at EverGreen ZeroWaste and joined the Carbondale Environmental Board. She initiated several sustainability efforts for the Town of Carbondale including expanding waste diversion options at annual waste-disposal days and helped the town adopt an Ecological Bill of Rights. She also brought source-separated glass recycling to South Canyon\u2019s recycling facility.<\/p>\n

She volunteered for numerous activities that helped to change how the Spring Valley campus embraces sustainable practices. She organized zero-waste events at CMC, convinced staff to install healthy food vending machines, and helped establish composting at the Spring Valley and Glenwood Springs campuses. That led to similar changes at Morgridge Commons in downtown Glenwood Springs. Those changes helped the college divert the waste it sends to landfills.<\/p>\n

In naming Farwell this year\u2019s Outstanding Bachelor\u2019s Student at the Spring Valley campus, program staff have noted that she \u201cembodies sustainability in everything she does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with her classes, Farwell has worked part-time since 2017 for the City of Aspen\u2019s Environmental Health and Sustainability Department. Her boss is Liz O\u2019Connell Chapman, also an adjunct faculty member in the college\u2019s sustainability studies program.<\/p>\n

With her degree, Farwell said she has future plans to spend a year with the AmeriCorps program and seek her master\u2019s degree in communication.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to combine communication with sustainability so I can engage diverse groups of people with sustainable initiatives more effectively,\u201d Farwell said. She has already signed up for some communication and new media classes for fall semester.<\/p>\n

Farwell praised O\u2019Connell Chapman, as well as Johann Aberger, associate professor of outdoor education, and Adrian Fielder, now Spring Valley assistant dean of instruction, for helping guide and motivate her toward completing her degree. She also praised Kevin Hillmer-Pegram, Spring Valley\u2019s full time sustainability professor, for his efforts in making \u201creal life\u201d projects part of his courses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program is very experiential, very hands-on, so you don\u2019t have to wait until you graduate before you put what you learn to use,\u201d Farwell said. \u201cThe small classes and the student interaction were great, too. I\u2019ve really enjoyed this journey. It\u2019s been such a joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Julia Farwell gets ready for a hug from CMC Campus Dean and Vice President Heather Exby at graduation on the Spring Valley campus while Kevin Hillerman looks on. Farwell was named outstanding Bachelor’s graduate during the ceremony.E P Kosmicki SPRING VALLEY \u2014 When it comes to sustainability, there may not be another Colorado Mountain College […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1309925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 07:24:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1309925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1309925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1309925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1309925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}