On Thursday, August 12, 2010, students in the INVST Community Leadership Program of CU Boulder will meet with five local politicians at the State Capitol in Denver to discuss current energy issues facing Colorado and the U.S.  The panelists will include:  Representative Claire Levy, Representative Frank McNulty, Representative Carole Murray, Representative Paul Weissman, and Jyff Lyng of the Governor’s Energy Office. As the INVST Community Leadership Program combines academics with activism, preparing CU students for careers serving humanity & the environment, INVST students will engage these officials in dialogue surrounding energy extraction, environmental sustainability, and renewable energy.

To prepare for this exciting event, INVST students spent four weeks traveling along Colorado’s Western Slope on a Summer Service-Learning experience.  Summer Service-Learning Experiences are among the most significant aspects of the INVST program, giving students the chance to learn first-hand about environmental and social change. The students began this exploration with a wilderness component in the Rocky Mountains, where they developed a connection with the natural world. Then, students learned about the impacts of oil and gas drilling and gainedinsight on innovative solutions through sustainable technologies. They also journeyed to the Diné Nation in Arizona to serve and learn about the impacts of coal mining on indigenous places and people. The knowledge students gained from this experience will culminate in the questions they have formulated for the panelists on August 12th.