Lexie Carr recently attended the C2C Fellows workshop at Bard College from November 30th-December 2nd. While at the workshop Lexie stood out amongst the students and was one of the most active participants in the workshop weekend. Below is a brief bio about Lexie. Followed by that is a blog post she wrote about her experience at the C2C workshop. Check it out to see what Lexie had to say about the weekend!
Lexie Carr is a senior at Williams College studying History and Environmental Studies. She hails from Dedham, Massachusetts. At Williams, Lexie is a leader in Thursday night Grassroots (the school’s student-run environmental club), runs an annual community service event in which student volunteers weatherize low-income homes for free, and actively participates in the Williams Outing Club. In fall of 2011, she helped raise over $5000 to bring 100 Williams students to Washington D.C. for the November 6th Keystone XL pipeline protest, and this year she is planning to run a No Impact Week in April. After Williams, Lexie hopes to continue to work on addressing climate change.
“Last weekend I was fortunate enough to receive CES funding to attend the Northeast regional C2C (or Campus to Congress/Corporation) Workshop, run by Eban Goodstein, class of 1982. The workshop was a three-day leadership training event, which focused specifically on empowering young people to tackle the issue of climate change. Around 70 students, recent graduates and professors attended, most from New England, with one group having traveled all the way from Tulane University in Louisiana.
I truly have nothing but positive things to say about my experience at C2C. The whole weekend was well-structured and extremely helpful, both because we learned and practiced valuable skills such as fundraising and public speaking, but also because we were given the opportunity to spend time reflecting on ourselves—our strengths as leaders, our values, and the issues we care deeply about. One exercise told us to “develop a mantra,” a phrase or sentence that held meaning for each of us individually, something that we could use to direct our lives, a baseline for when we felt our path straying.
But apart from the actual presentations and exercises, the other reason I came away from Bard feeling energized and inspired was the people I met while I was there. All of the people attending the workshop were so passionate and genuine and interesting and talented. Unlike other gatherings where I feel warily compelled to schmooze with people, I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to everyone at C2C. I was able to exchange ideas for projects and events I could organize back at Williams, laugh until I almost cried while listening to some students share their stories during public speaking training, and encounter viewpoints on issues like energy security and genetically-modified food that I had never heard before. For so short an event for people to get to know one another, it was a remarkably supportive environment, and I left with a rekindled desire to dream big and a renewed confidence in myself to see those dreams through.”
