For the first time, Tulane University’s Earth Day celebrations were entirely student-run, thanks to the new Earth Day Festival Planning Committee. The group transformed traditional programming into a vibrant festival, featuring food, live music, eco-friendly vendors and sustainability-themed competitions. 

Tulane senior Maya Shields was inspired to start the Earth Day Festival Planning Committee after attending the university’s 2024 Earth Day celebration. While she commended the university’s efforts, Shields believed she could expand engagement beyond the small event that typically takes place.

“I wanted there to be a space for students to come together, to really focus on the environment and think about environmental issues and how they can be involved and really connect on a personal level,” Shields said. 

Shields recruited senior Leah Starr to be her co-director and began brainstorming the festival. Starr is a vocal part of the environmental community on campus and founded Tulane’s chapter of Epsilon Eta, the professional environmental fraternity, in 2023. 

The women began with a single mission: “to inspire environmental awareness and sustainability within the Tulane community by celebrating student achievements and creating enjoyable, meaningful experiences,” Starr said. 

“Our main goal was to create a space that brought in people outside of environmental studies or environmental clubs to engage with the topic of the environment,” Shields said. 

In hopes of maximizing the festival’s impact, Shields and Starr built a planning committee of 14 students, with positions in marketing, sustainability, internal communications, external communications, food and catering, entertainment and small events. They also enlisted the support of 10 student organizations, eight academic institutes and offices and five community organizations. 

“[By] combining as many things as we could, we tried to make the festival as big as possible to have the greatest outreach and the greatest impact,” Starr said.

The festival saw robust participation from students and the community, with over 250 attendees. Students and organizers alike have expressed positive feedback about the event. 

“I was so excited to see The Daily Beet there as I love their juices. I also got a super cute free tote bag, picked up a beautiful hand-drawn Mother’s Day card from a student artist and really enjoyed the live music,” senior Leila Prado said. “It was such a great mix of local talent and good vibes.”

“We had wonderful participation,” associate director at the Tulane Center for Public Service, Maurice Smith, said. “Lots of people came out throughout the day, and a lot of people took away a lot of knowledge in terms of how to be more sustainable in their everyday living.”

Shields hopes that the event served as an entertaining and uplifting reminder of the importance of sustainability and climate consciousness for the community.

“A lot of people can kind of go about life without having to really think critically or even engage with the environment or with issues of climate change,” Shields said. “I thought it was important to create a designated space for that, and to put it right in front of people and make it exciting and entertaining.”

As seniors, Shields and Starr hope to see the new and improved Earth Day celebration continue to thrive and expand beyond their time at Tulane. 

“A big goal of the event was to have it become a yearly thing,” Starr said. “We’re hoping that the people we worked with this year on that, who are freshmen, sophomores and juniors, will continue on the legacy.”