18 billion pounds of plastic enter our oceans each year, a harrowing fact that only accounts for a portion of our planet’s pollution crisis. Northeastern innovators are tackling this problem to create sustainable solutions for cleaner oceans. Bureo Inc, an emerging B-Corp, has created a program to recycle fishing nets into a NetPlus™ material, used in products by Patagonia and other partner companies.  Review the conversation to fight plastic pollution with Ben Kneppers, E’07, co-founder and COO of Bureo Inc., and Maarten Eenkema van Dijk, E’14, MS’15, operations manager for Van Dyk Recycling Solutions.

Reflecting over the past year, it can seem like we went from coping with new challenges every month to coping with new challenges every week, to then seemingly having to deal with new challenges on an almost daily basis. The yearning to find inner peace and stability amidst the chaos is no longer the inquiry of the curious few, but the urgent necessity of the many.  In this, the last of our sessions, our three meditation experts explained and explored how we can all experience the richness of inner stillness.  Our guest speaker, a professor of psychology from Northeastern University, described how her work with neuroimaging proves the way in which our thoughts really do shape and determine our reality.  With the power of both science and silence, we will be ready for whatever 2021 has in store …  

If the coronavirus has taught us one thing, it’s the importance of our connections with each other. People everywhere have been stepping up to reach out and offer support to those who are lonely, marginalized or in need. So how do we build on the outpouring of co-operation we witnessed at the beginning of the pandemic, when neighborhoods pulled together in random acts of kindness and goodwill? How do we capitalize on the realization that we really do live in an interconnected world and that for better or worse ‘we are in this together.’

In this session we explored how through behavioral changes and our broadening world view, we are learning new ways to connect, to build resilient community and open our hearts and minds to the limitless possibilities of a new and shared future.

Finding the contribution that is ‘yours to do’ brings real satisfaction and the reward of knowing that in whatever way, you are making a difference. Are you in the right place, doing what you are meant to be doing at this time?

In this session we explored your answer to that question with the support of two women who between them have decades of experience helping others identify their life purpose and create a future vision that will carry them forwards. Your vision will impact not just yourself, but your family, your place of work, your community, your country and possibly even your world.

The world is in a constant state of change. Recently these changes seem more frequent and more disruptive. How can we as humanity, navigate these changes and emerge more stable and resilient?

This session featured an interactive panel of Raja Yoga Meditation practitioners who discussed a profound process of transformation which both includes and transcends the challenges, while recognizing that change is not only inevitable but to be welcomed, as we transition towards something new.