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Vermont Farmer Profiles

Capstone students are helping us hear the stories of farmers who are adapting to climate change

The Public Communication Capstone is a service-learning course at the University of Vermont (UVM). The USDA Northeast Climate Hub partnered with teams of Capstone students in spring and fall 2019 to develop profiles on Vermont farmers who have found ways to adapt to the current climate trends. Through this Capstone project, students developed professional-level integrated communication materials to meet current needs of local and regional organizations.

Using the skills developed throughout their tenure at UVM, the students used the real-world projects to build and demonstrate their competencies in leadership and teamwork, research, evaluation, written and visual communication, technology, and social marketing. The spring team includes Lulu Prinsloo, Luke Petela, Emmanuel Archilla, Bryanna Occhiboi, and Meg Barnett. The fall team is Kian Deshler, Melissa Gentile, Eli Kushen, Carter Neubieser, and Izzy Rotondo. With advice and guidance from UVM’s Climate Hub liaison, Alissa White, the teams decided to use peer learning and case studies as a story-based communication method to help share information on climate resilience from and to farmers. The students not only helped the Northeast Climate Hub explore climate adaptation on working Vermont farms, but they were also able to gain hands-on experience as the next generation of communication specialists.