Encouraging Internal Reflection with Sustainability
Many Duke students are familiar with the regular appearance of tables on Bryan Center Plaza advertising anything under the sun, from theatre shows to fundraisers. However, one table stands out amid the chaos. Littered with old newspapers, tote bags, and miscellaneous scraps of fabric, the table belonging to the Lark Program offers an experience as unique as its name suggests.
The Lark Program is a part of the Say the Thing Initiative which is a collaboration between the Duke Chapel and Kenan Institute for Ethics. Their mission is to encourage students to think creatively and uniquely about their identity. They go about this by running pop-up events on high traffic areas of campus, such as BC Plaza, that prompt students to stop and reflect on their identity through some kind of craft or art project. The pop-ups range in terms of the crafts created but all share a common purpose of open-endedness, allowing for a rare opportunity for creative thinking and complete intellectual freedom in a busy college student’s day. Graduate student and Green Devil Intern working with Lark Tsedensodnom (Terry) Uranbold explains that when they plan these Larks, the group asks themselves, “how can we take two minutes out of our day to think about these questions?”
Uranbold is a graduate student at the Nicolas School of the Environment where he studies energy finance, project development, and global energy markets. He was first introduced to Lark the way most people are: walking on BC plaza. He recalls regularly being in the “BC rush,” hurrying to commitments, when his friend, a Lark intern, would call him over to participate in whatever pop-up was happening that day. Through making buttons, posters, and stamps, he began to appreciate what he describes as a “cool disruption” to his day. What really drew him in, however, was learning about the connection to sustainability, something that was especially important to him given his background.
Originally from Mongolia, Uranbold’s upbringing educated him on the importance of the environment and protecting our natural resources. The issue of overgrazing in his home country introduced him to the idea of sustainability, and in particular the importance of achieving a circular economy in which need does not supersede environmental concerns. This key concept of circularity ties directly to one of the main aspects of Lark and its sustainability.
The Lark program is centered around the idea of utilizing trash that originates from all areas of campus as the materials for their pop-ups. They enlist a group of fondly named “Trash Racoons,” who are volunteers that will visit different organizations on campus to ask for donations of their unused or old materials. They typically reach out to either specifically request a kind of trash from the area or just generally ask for any kind of trash they might have laying around. Sometimes they will place collection bins in locations like the library or they might contact organizations like Duke University Union and take their leftovers from events. Uranbold believes that “they collect trash to turn into creative opportunities” and it is this transformation that allows for freedom of expression in their pop-ups. The fact that the materials are being reused and saved from the landfills allows people a sense of freedom as it removes pressure of creating and can instead create freely, free from fear of perfection.
As his time with Lark has progressed, Uranbold has said he’s seen an increase in recognition among the student body. “People are more open to it,” he says and part of that is due to an increased presence on campus. Uranbold’s disclaimer to us is this: “We apologize in advance if we disrupt your day, be open to it.”
More broadly, Uranbold encourages us all to implement a more sustainable leadership by implementing sustainability in all aspects of our lives from what we buy to our personal relationships. We must appreciate what we already have in order to create a more sustainable world. Finally, he reminds that Lark and Say the Thing are only initiatives, programs and events. His ultimate hope is that we won’t need these initiatives on BC plaza, and that, instead, we can practice thinking creatively and critically within ourselves.