Despite the busy fifth week, buried in midterms, Knox students remained enthusiastic about the prominent event on campus: Earth Week. While Earth Day fell on April 22, Sustainability for Students extended the celebration into a full week.
The highlight of the week was the Earth Day Festival, which brought 22 student organizations together and featured nine musical performances. During the festival, students had the chance to engage with nature in different ways, from interactive games to live entertainment.
“The festival is really nice. I like making plants,” said freshman Esteffano Martini. “They gave us the soil and a cup and put the seed into the soil and then put water in it, so now I’m waiting for it to grow.”
Sophomore Divyesh Shrestha shared similar thoughts: “The festival is fun, good vibe, nice music. My favorite activity is frisbee. It’s really fun. And I also paint the tote bag in the share shop.”
Earlier in the week, multiple events related to Earth Day were held.
Activities began at the Knox Farm on April 19th, where students grouped together to clean the campus. That same week, the preparation for the main festival and a repair event were held at the Makerspace.
Students returned to the Knox Farm on Thursday, April 23rd, to enjoy a yoga session led by Director of Campus Sustainability Initiatives & Knox Farm, Kristina Hope.
“I think it’s really relaxing and chill. And it’s been so long since I’ve done yoga; this is a chance for me to remember the older yoga courses that I have taken,” said freshman Tessie Phan.
The day prior to the Earth Fest, students gathered at Post Lawn to enjoy a screening of “Can’t Stop Change: Queer Climate Stories from Florida Frontlines,” a documentary presenting journeys of the LGBTQ+ community in Florida through climate and nature.
“It was a fun, good, and informative movie,” said Shrestha.
With the theme “Our Power, Our Planet,” Earth Week 2026 not only spread the message about taking care of the Earth and protecting it but also created an impactful connection within the campus community.
“Sustainability and environmentalism are more than just what people think,” said junior Co-President of Sustainability for Students Nicole Roman. “People often think that it’s under biology and STEM or recycling, but it’s a lot more things. It’s intersectionality with so many issues.”
She also believes that working towards a common goal is especially attainable at Knox, since it’s a small and inclusive community.
“Even if you come from a different background, there’s an opportunity to understand one another,” Roman said.
This belief is further strengthened by Earth Fest’s multiple collaborations with different student organizations.
Sophomore Public Relations Executive of Sustainability for Students Sawane Imanari said, “Through Earth Month, we collaborated with a lot of other clubs as well, and that’s kind of like bringing the campus to one.”
Students from different organizations come together during Earth Month, turning sustainability into a shared experience.
“I feel like it’s really fun and nice to have different groups together for a common cause,” said junior representative of Badminton Club Zoe Grigoroff.
She claims that participating in the Earth Day Festival is also a very good opportunity to promote activities on campus that we may not be aware of.
“It is good to create awareness,” Grigoroff said.
Additionally, students participating in those events found themselves more connected to nature, the Earth, and the Knox community.
Nature’s smell was the most prominent moment for Phan at the Yoga and Stargazing event.
“I can feel like the sweetness is lingering in the air when I take a deep breath, and nature is surrounding me,” Phan said.
Freshman Jacquelyn Butts, another attendee of the event, claimed that doing yoga in a group setting was what stood out to her the most.
“It’s fun doing it with a bunch of people and having that kind of communal experience,” Butts said. “I don’t know most of these people, but it was still nice having a community within.”
Embracing and protecting nature and our earth is not always about complex biological concepts. It can be painting, watching movies, or spending time outdoors. Earth Week has brought the campus together and, in the end, it reminded students that we all have one thing in common: we all live on this Earth.
