SPEAK Club Spotlight

By: Faith Fegley

“S.P.E.A.K., Trine’s environmental club, plans for the future”  

Trine’s environmental club, S.P.E.A.K., or Students Promoting Environmental Awareness and Knowledge, is thinking long term about the future of their club.  

The group was founded on campus in 2008 with the help of then student Carey Abrams and professor Dr. Brandy DePriest. The group has been able to accomplish a lot on campus throughout their 15 years as an organization, including the largest Earth Day festival in Steuben County, trail and river clean-ups, an ‘Adopt a Tree’ festival, and much more.  

And yet, they no longer have the resources to have university wide recycling. Because of this, their main focus this semester is getting more students to join S.P.E.A.K..  

“One of our main focuses this semester is going to be on generating student interest,” said Dr. Brandy DePriest, a communications professor at Trine and the faculty advisor of S.P.E.AK.. “I think it’s just about getting the word out there.”  

According to Dr. DePriest, at one point the club had enough manpower to go around weekly and empty the recycling bins in common areas and administration offices. However, since 2018, the university has no longer recycled. Dr. DePriest argues that this happened because the university changed trash companies, as well as an overall lack of communication and participation. 

Despite this setback, S.P.E.A.K. is hopeful that they will be able to get greater student involvement with their events this semester, as well as bring back recycling bins to campus.  

“Moving forward, we just need to focus on letting students know that we’re here, as well as trying to get recycling bins in academic buildings and common spaces,” said Dr. DePriest.  

The club also plans to have several events this semester to bring in new members. An upcoming event that we are particularly looking forward to is a flower preservation workshop on February 22,” said Areeba Kazi, student president of S.P.E.A.K.. “[we’ll also have] an eclipse viewing event on April 8th."  

To get involved with S.P.E.A.K., contact Dr. Brandy DePriest or the club’s president, Areeba Haseeb.