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Leah Stokes, 0T7"It's easy to think that there's only one community here, but that's not the truth. It's a vibrant place, with an excessive amount of brilliant people."
After graduating in June 2007 with a double major in Psychology and Buddisim and Asian Religions, she says it's time for a little break to catch her breath and figure out what comes next. "The one thing I do know is that I want to work on environmental causes," says Stokes. "I believe the crisis our planet is currently experiencing is the challenge of my generation. We've spent a lot of time experimenting with what we are capable of as a species, and although we've accomplished some amazing feats, we've also made a big mess!" That's why Stokes helped start Rewire, a program to encourage people at U of T to reduce their energy consumption. Through a targeted advertising campaign that Stokes developed, electricity use was reduced by up to 10 per cent at seven U of T residences. Saving the world? That's easy. But running a student newspaper? "Editing Salterrae was by far the hardest thing I've ever done," she says. "We would spend an entire weekend, maybe 35 hours, in a basement without windows, simply working away. It was a bit crazy on top of five courses, but that was my best year academically and socially. It was a great experience, because the newspaper attracts a different group of Trinity students, and I really enjoyed leading the community that coalesced around creating the paper every two weeks." She also contributed to local magazines on feminism, Buddhism, and environmentalism (The F*WORD, Wisdom, and Green Perspectives, respectively), and edited Trinity's literary journal, The Trinity Review. The list reflects Stokes's broad range of interests, and she says Trinity is a place to find people who share that category-defying thinking. "Trinity is what you want it to be," she says. "It's a community which you can actively create, if you so choose. It's easy to think that there's only one community here, but that's not the truth. It's a vibrant place, with an excessive amount of brilliant people." – Graham F. Scott |
SEPTEMBER 2007 - "As my father says, 'Those who can, must,'" says Leah Stokes, who can – and does – do an awful lot. As co-founder and director of Rewire, an energy-reduction program of the University of Toronto Sustainability Office, president of the U of T Environmental Resource Network, and editor of Trinity College's student newspaper, Salterrae, Stokes packed her schedule during her four years of study at Trinity.