Law and politics student Lila Iriburiro Happy was selected as one of three top presenters at the UWill Discover Sustainable Futures conference.
It’s going to take inclusive consultation to develop intergenerational, sustainable, and equitable approaches to the Sustainable Development Goals, says Lila Iriburiro Happy.
The law and politics student is one of three presenters at the UWill Discover Sustainable Futures whom facilitators awarded top honours during a wrap event Friday.
“The UWill Discover conference epitomizes how effective education can be from theory-based to practical application,” Happy says.
Her project, entitled “African Indigenous Knowledge at the Intersect of Environmental Sustainability and Legal Precedent,” addressed several of the goals, identified by the United Nations as a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.
“Who we consider as experts starts to diversify when intersectional approaches are encouraged,” she says.
The other top conferees were creative writing major Leah Levy for “Constraint Poetry on Disability and Disability as Constraint” and biomedical sciences student Emmanuel Boujeke for “Spy1-Mediated Cell Cycle Effects Enhance Oncogenic Transformation by Selected Drivers in Human Glioblastoma.”
Interim provost Patti Weir says the finals were a pleasure to watch, calling the presentations well-researched, informative, and professionally presented.
“The breadth of research was impressive and the students were exceptional,” she says. “Presenting in front of your peers, family, and faculty is not an easy but the dissemination of knowledge is a responsibility we have as an institution.”
The full roster of award winners is posted on the UWill Discover Sustainable Futures website.
“With over 160 presentations given during the conference week, it was extraordinarily competitive to be among the top presenters,” says Tim Brunet, project lead for UWill Discover.
Next steps include launching the UWill Discover journal and selecting four conference participants to lead a team to the Model United Nations in Washington, D.C. in November. Find more information on the year-round project on its YouTube channel.