Mother Nature may have put an ironic twist on this semester’s Focus the Nation event, but she didn’t get the best of environmental studies assistant professor Jon Rosales. The St. Lawrence session of the nationwide climate-change awareness forum was canceled due to bad weather.

Rosales’s love of environmental studies began with his love for the outdoors, including skiing, hiking and camping. Another large factor was global poverty. He says, “I realized how connected humanity's condition is with the environment.”

Currently in his fourth year of teaching at St. Lawrence, Rosales spent an entire year planning the Focus the Nation event that partially took place in January. The idea was to “expose political leaders to an informed citizenry on climate change,” says Rosales. Numerous teach-ins and discussions earlier in the day, some student-led, were conducted.

Even though the event was unfinished, Rosales believes that his students gained tremendous knowledge. He says, “My students who gave presentations developed a firm grounding in climate change science and impacts. They also sharpened their presenting skills and were able to connect with a national advocacy campaign.”

Hoping to have more events like Focus the Nation, Rosales says, “I hope my students who presented are able to repeat what they did over and over again here in the North Country, or wherever they go.”

Spring semester courses that Rosales is teaching are Pollution Spectacular, Management Monster: Global Warming and the End of Oil (a First-Year Seminar); Introduction to Environmental Studies; and Once and Future Forests.