Portraits: Hannah Bristol ’14.5, Political Organizer
Dozens of alumni who helped launch Middlebury’s Sunday Night Environmental Group (originally known as the “Sunday Night Group”) returned to campus recently for SNEG’s 20-year reunion and a two-day conference exploring the question, “What Works Now?”
We asked a few of them to reflect on their time as Middlebury students and to offer some advice for today’s generation of college climate activists.
I rely on the skills I learned here every day.
Hannah: For me what’s felt the most relevant from when I was in SNEG is the organizing work—how to facilitate well, how to build coalitions, how to work through conflict with people, how to organize and fundraise and bring people together around something. I think mostly the organization skills and communication skills I learned during my time with SNEG are what carry me through in my day-to-day life.
In my time organizing at Middlebury, I really learned the importance of finding the lane where you feel like you’re going to make the most impact and to do that really well. And it’s okay if you’re doing that work and not the other things because there are people in those other lanes who are really good at what they’re doing.
Advice to students: Try lots of different things and don’t be afraid to follow the thing you’re really excited about. Everything you’re going through and all of the conflict and confusion you’re experiencing is building critical skills that will carry into the workforce or volunteering. I rely on the skills I learned here every day.
How to speak with people with whom you disagree: I think the main thing people want is to feel listened to and to feel that you understand them. So first, caring about someone as a person and hearing about their life experiences and the things that inform their thinking is important. Everyone believes the things they believe for a reason and we need to be truly listening to that reason and finding out what the underlying rationale is behind why they may not be agreeing with you.