Lunch Connect

Steen Family Symposium – DJS Coalition Community Connections
Monday 4/21 12:30PM – 1:30PM, CK East
Tuesday 2/22 12:30PM – 1:30PM, CK East

LunchConnect is returning for Earth & Diversity Week! Come to LunchConnect to meet students from diverse backgrounds and expand your circle beyond your usual friend group. Experience the ripple effect of building connections within your community as we discuss our relationship to water! We’ll provide the conversation starters and a catered lunch!  RSVP Required

Ripples of Insight: Reflections of Self Through Family Stories

Steen Family Symposium
Tuesday 4/22, 11:50AM – 1:35PM, CK West
Tuesday 4/22, 1:45PM – 3:30PM, CK West

The properties of water are some of the most amazing on the planet, and the ripple effect is a significant metaphor in the interconnections we have with our environments and each other. During this session, join EDUC 205/FYEP 102: Multicultural Perspectives in the Classroom  students as they share insights from their exploration on the ripples in their lives through interviewing parents, caretakers, and family. Together we’ll draw out common themes of how we learn and grow together, acknowledging the rippling effect.

Restorative Practices: Understanding our Sacred Connection Across Watersheds

Steen Family Symposium – DJS Coalition Community Connections
Tuesday 4/22, 4:30PM – 6:00PM, CK East

A‘ohe pau ka ‘ike i ka hālau ho‘okahi – All knowledge is not learned in just one school, One can learn from many sources
He aupuni palapala ko’u- Mine is of an educated Kingdom, Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III

Sui-Lan Ho`okano, cultural educator and practitioner, will share her mo’olelo about building relationships throughout our watershed while utilizing environmental asset-based storytelling as our ways of building community and culturally relevant learning spaces.

AI + Water

Wednesday 4/23, 11AM – Noon, DJS Lounge
Join us as we seek to learn more about the relationship between artificial intelligence and water. 

Ripples of Sustainability at PLU

University Sustainability Committee 
Thursday 4/24, 4PM – 5PM, AUC 201

A droplet of water can create a ripple effect.  Join the University Sustainability to share your insights and perspectives as we begin to draft a vision for our next set of sustainability goals and strategies.  Using a droplet of water as a metaphor for an individual’s voice, we are inviting the campus community to come together as we begin our steps of drafting a next set of sustainability goals and strategies that hopefully deepen our relationships with our communities and the landscape.

Indigenous Activism to Guard Our Waters

Steen Family Symposium
Monday 4/21, 11:15AM – 12:20PM, AUC 133

Join RELI 236: Native American Religious Traditions as they welcome Paul Chiyokten Wagner (Wsaanich/Saanich) to their class.  Chiyokten will share about his creative and activist work on behalf of the Salish Sea.

Keynote: What does it require to support and be supported by healthy watersheds?

Steen Family Symposium
Monday 4/21, 7:00PM, Scandinavian Cultural Center

The Keynote Panel will bring together speakers who experience water and watersheds in their work as artists, educators, scientists and managers to discuss the many ways we are all connected to our local watersheds and water in general. The panel members will attempt to answer the framing question through the lenses of their disciplinary and life perspectives, leaving the audience with ideas about how to support the watersheds in which we live.
Panelist: Caroline Mellor, Paul Chiyokten Wagner, Kristin Williamson, & Rose McKenney

Salmon Habitat Restoration in the South Puget Sound

Steen Family Symposium
Monday 4/21, 11:15AM – 12:20PM, AUC 133

Join ENVT 350: Environmental Methods as they welcome Salmon Habitat Restoration Biologist Kristin Williamson to their class.  Kristin will discuss her work with the South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group. Learn what it takes to restore watersheds and re-create salmon habitat! This is truly interdisciplinary work that requires expertise in biology, geology, hydrology, political science, legal policy, tribal history, traditional ecological knowledge, community building, communication, grant writing, project management, and construction.

Film Screening: Guardians of the Waters

Native American & Indigenous Studies + ASPLU
Thursday 6PM – 8PM, Rieke 103B

Please join ASPLU & NISA in viewing Amiran White’s film Guardians of the Waters which highlights the partnership between the Necanicum Watershed Council & Chinook Indian Nation as they work to protect the Necanicum Watershed.  “Guardians of the Waters” follows the groundbreaking partnership between the Necanicum Watershed Council and the Chinook Indian Nation to jointly steward the Necanicum Watershed in the Chinook’s ancestral Clatsop Territory. Despite the Chinook’s ongoing fight for federal recognition, this alliance blends traditional ecological knowledge with modern conservation practices, highlighting the importance of sovereignty and the resilience of the Chinook people in protecting their homeland.

Third Annual Clothing Swap

Center for DJS
Wednesday 4/23, 10AM – 6PM, DJS Classroom (AUC 135)
Thursday 4/24, 10AM – 6PM, DJS Classroom (AUC 135)

Have you ever thought about the cycle of your relationship with clothing? The E&D Week clothing swap aims to encourage students to pause and think about the cycles of consumption that they engage in and how we can make more sustainable decisions. The annual Clothing Swap fosters an environment where we can exchange clothes within our community and prevent perfectly good clothing items from entering the landfill. Choosing to adopt used clothing rather than purchasing new is a better choice for our community and the environment as a whole.  Particularly for the 2025 clothing swap we are encouraging our community to learn more about water usage in the textile industry. We hope that students will reflect on their own relationships with fashion, consumption, and its effects on waterways.

Thirsty for Adventure: Water Wise Practices in the Backcountry

Outdoor Recreation
Thursday 4/24, Noon – 2PM, 1st Floor AUC Grey Area

PLU Outdoor Rec will be hosting an educational event focused on drinking-water safety, awareness, and protection in the backcountry. The goal of this event is to bring attention to the importance of water stewardship, while providing students with the necessary tools and knowledge to safely and responsibly enjoy one of the most vital resources for outdoor adventures: Water. This event will include informative demonstrations on Leave No Trace (LNT) principles, fun and interactive ways to engage with local water, and essential skills for water filtration and treatment.

Garden Work Party

Center for DJS
Saturday 4/26, Noon – 1:30PM, PLU Community Garden

Many hands make light work! Join us in planting and watering in our garden.

He Wa’a He Moku, He Moku He Wa’a

Native American & Indigenous Studies 
Sunday 4/27,11AM-5PM Seattle

Join the Native Indigenous Student Association for an opportunity to connect with the community & the waters of the Pacific Northwest through the tradition of Hawaiian canoe.  Transportation from campus and lunch provided.  As a part of 2025 Earth & Diversity Week, we’ll reflect on the water’s role in our lives how it connects us and inspires us. No experience needed, and all are welcome! RSVP required, $10 to reserve your spot. RSVP Required.

Wading Against the Current: Make Art for the Turbulent Times

Steen Family Symposium
Tuesday 4/22, 2:30PM – 4:00PM, CK East

Join PLU Alumnus, Saiyare Refaei, in guided art making for these turbulent times. Water connects all of us on this planet and art can be a tool of further connection in community. Come to challenge fears of perfectionism, create to our hearts content, and dream of a thriving world we want to see.

Queer Coffee

Center for DJS
Wednesday 4/23, 2:30PM-3:30PM, RSVP for Location

Queer Coffee is a biweekly check-in for LGBTQIA2S+ PLU staff & faculty, but for Earth & Diversity Week we would love for any queer Lutes to join us! This is a great opportunity to explore the ripple effects of creating relationships that transcend our regular dynamics of being.  For the E&D Week Queer Coffee we will be creating zines. Zines are a pretty queer medium both in their history and connection to movements, as well as how they are physically crafted and disseminated into community. They can be folded in many different ways, folded inside out, represent information and images in left-right reading style or flow across and throughout the pages. They can also be modified and repurposed into new zines or longer zines. Their dissemination represents the ripple effects of relationships and knowledge sharing across communities, often shared through free libraries, gift economies, and created out of grassroots movements as creative ways to pass along knowledge through less formal structures.

Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, An Un-Staged Reading

Alpha Psi Omega
Wednesday 4/23, 3:30PM – 5:30PM, AUC 213

Join us as we read through Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl– a modern retelling of a classic myth that follows Eurydice’s journey to the underworld as she reunites with her father and explores ideas of memory, love and loss.  In Eurydice, the presence of both the river of forgetfulness and the raining elevator help to further the E&D Week themes of water. The water is always flowing and changing, much like our lives and experience which are in a constant state of motion, pushing us apart and bringing us back together.  Want to read for a character? Great! Just want to listen? Thats great too! The reading will be followed by a brief guided discussion of the plays themes.

Taste of Vietnam : Cooking with Water

Vietnamese Student Association 
Friday 4/25, Tastings at 6pm & 7pm, Scandinavian Cultural Center

RSVP HERE

The foundation of two classic Vietnamese noodle soups, phở and hủ tiếu, is water since the broth-making method depends on meticulous simmering to extract complex flavors.  Broth serves as a bridge, bringing communities, families, and friends together over shared meals. This event will showcase how water turns basic ingredients into healthy dishes.  Participants will gain knowledge about the cultural significance of foods like phở (beef noodle soup) and hủ tiếu (pork and seafood noodle soup), the role of broth in these dishes, and the effects of water quality on flavors.

Puget Sound Watershed Dinner

Steen Family Symposium
Monday 4/21, 5:00PM – 7:00PM, The Commons

Join us for dinner with a menu featuring Puget Sound specialties.  If you are attending the panel and don’t have an AYCTE meal plan, request a FREE dinner ticket HERE

Pool Party

Center for DJS
Wednesday 4/23, 7PM – 9PM, PLU Pool

Hey ya’ll, come join us at a pool party where we will all enjoy being weightless, leave the weight of your responsibilities at the door :)) Come enjoy fun games like water polo and volleyball, vibe to good music, and be with community as we all celebrate the bonds we have with water and each other. Our pool party hopes to build bonds to each other through water. As we have fun and connect with each other, our shared weightlessness is predicated on our relationship to water. Come as you are, and bring your friends along for the good vibes.

Aloha Friday: He Wa’a, He Honua – The Earth is Our Canoe

Center for DJS
Friday 4/25, 3:30PM – 5PM, DJS Lounge (AUC 140)

Aloha Friday is a weekly time to drop in for a snack, jam, and talk story.  For E&D Week we will watch a film about the Hokule’a and learn lessons from the viewpoint of a canoe. So come as you are, and bring your friends!!

Ritmo Latino: Waves of Connection & Celebration

Latinx Unidos
Friday 4/25, 8PM – 11pm, Morken

Get ready for an unforgettable night at our on-campus Latin dance! Join us as we celebrate the bonds that bring us together, all through the music and dance that showcases different flows and movements of water. It’s all about coming together, and enjoying the flow of the evening!