Ella DeBode was astounded when she took out the trash for the first time in her Copenhagen apartment while studying abroad with Northwestern in Fall 2019. There were six different bins to sort food and material waste. Responsibility for your individual impact was the way of life.

DeBode, now a Northwestern senior, created Cats Who Compost a year later in Fall 2020 to help reimagine the environmental impact of Northwestern students. It was her first time living off-campus in the fall, and this responsibility came with processing her food waste. “It made me reevaluate my own impact,” said DeBode. She researched compost pickup companies in the Evanston and Chicago areas, but there was no cost-friendly option for college students.

The summit of Mauna Kea, at 13,803 feet, hovers above land and water. When a foamy sheet of cloud layer separates the summit from the rest of the Big Island of Hawaii, it appears on its own as an isolated haven adorned in ruby glow. It’s not hard to see why this dormant volcano serves as the genesis for Hawaiian culture – it’s where the heavens unite with Earth.

With the recent Thirty Meter Telescope protests being staged at the base of Mauna Kea, there seems to be a rebirth of action by a multi-generational group of native Hawaiians to protect the volcano’s ecosystems from further damage.

Jack Carlson will never forget the natural, soft light that wrapped around his infant, Greg, in their Glenview living room. A friend photographed the newborn in this moment. “The baby never looked better,” Carlson said. Carlson decided then he would do anything to learn how to capture similar natural images.

The 74-year-old resident of Glenview, Illinois works as a professional photographer and teaches nature photography at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Last January through March, Carlson connected his Swedish heritage with his profession in his “Natural Scenics” exhibition at the Andersonville Swedish American Museum. The show included 25 international nature and travel photographs, but he can’t pick a favorite – he treasures the experience behind each one. He defines photography as the control of light through time, and he uses the details of shadows and angles to enhance his work.

The Art Institute of Chicago provides free access for Northwestern undergraduate students to more than 300,000 art pieces from 5,000 years of human history. While the works of Van Gogh and Pollock fill this famous museum space, just one mile away an expansive artistic world flourishes, defying the constraints of museum walls. Grab a friend and enjoy a few hours or the entire day exploring a lesser-known gem of Chicago.

An outdoor urban canvas that twists through the streets of the South Loop, the Wabash Arts Corridor embodies the artistic spirit alive in Chicago. Columbia College Chicago began this dynamic project in 2013 with the intention for the collection to grow throughout the city. Urban art in the medium of outdoor murals defies the classic narrative of art as an experience between the artist and the viewer.