All posts by Kate Knuth

The Big Boreas Booya bash

October 22, 2014Event, Leadership, Newsboreas, boreas leadership program, leadershipKate Knuth

Traveling around the Twin Cities and Minnesota this time of year, you may have seen a sign for a community event that read something like, “Booya on Saturday.” Earlier this month, folks at the University of Minnesota got to experience a booya right here on campus. The Boreas Leadership Program held a Big Boreas Booya that brought together current and future leaders from across campus and beyond to share stories and ideas.

Why booya?

A booya is an upper midwestern tradition of community stew, generally held in the fall. “Booya” refers to both the stew and the event. Booyas are often held by churches, fire departments and other community groups.

So, why a booya on campus for an environmental leadership development program?

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Boreas is a stew of leadership opportunity

September 10, 2014Education, Event, Newsboreas, community, graduate education, leadershipKate Knuth

The Boreas Leadership Program is gearing up for its fall programming. Boreas is a co-curricular leadership development opportunity at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment. We invite all U of M graduate and professional students to participate in Boreas programming, which helps students catalyze environmental solutions. The program is idealistic in its aim of helping emerging leaders at the U develop into the world-changers they want to be and world-changers society needs.

The program is also pragmatic in its approach; leadership skills workshops are a core part of the programming. A schedule of workshops is offered each semester in four areas: communications and media, public skills, integrative leadership, and systems thinking and tools. Continue reading →

Exploring U.S.-Canadian energy connections

March 25, 2014Energy, NewsKate Knuth

I’ve been studying up on Canadian energy resources. The short summary is that Canada has a lot of resources. The other summary is that the United States (including Minnesota, where I’m from) has a lot of interests in Canadian energy. Like most energy issues, it’s complex. It’s a collision of our modern economy dependent on electricity at the flip of a switch and travel as easy as hopping in a car, with the impacts of developing increasingly hard-to-get, non-renewable energy resources — all in an increasingly unstable climate with a whole host of impacts on more localized communities.

This week I am going to Canada to learn about energy on a Pan-Praire Energy Tour organized by the Canadian government. The places I’ll visit are Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The energy resources: oil sands, uranium, carbon capture and storage (not a resource, but an important stop), large hydro and renewable resources. We’ll also be discussing many issues surrounding these resources, including First Nation relationships and climate change. Continue reading →