here with Dr. Jen Stewart, the famous, very famous Dr. Jen Stewart. And we wanted to get on a talk nerdy to me because I was talking to her just the other day, and we were talking about this whole idea with virtual assistants inside the optical and kind of dovetailing off a very great podcast that we heard from Dr. Adam Ramsey and Steve Vargo on I own a business. Jen, go ahead and tell me your thoughts on the virtual assistant talk that we heard through iDoc and I own a business. So one of my friends actually sent me the podcast and she said, Have you heard Steve Vargo and Adam Ramsey talking about virtual assistants? And I was like, I haven't. And she said it was the best podcast she heard and actually listening to that podcast made her sign up with one of the organizations and she actually just onboarded her virtual assistant a week ago today. So she was so inspired. And I actually went and I downloaded that podcast. I was traveling to a meeting. So I downloaded that podcast. It was the first thing I listened to on my plane ride. And it was so good. I also just recorded another video with Dr. Adam Ramsey for independent strong, which will be shortly talking about the same topic. So it was something I found really interesting, really exciting. So I had to have him on myself and talk to him. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. And I found it so real with Dr. Ramsey and how he really laid out like real expectations.  And you were telling me about one that Perry did, right? Yes. Yeah, tell me about that real quick. Perry Braille has I help you E Y E help you. So I was actually on one of the webinars he did where he was live and he was interviewing, I think me I think I listened to probably eight to 10 virtual assistants that he had on live talking to them about their background, the skills they have, what they like about working in an optimistic practice, what their dream practice would be. So just like we would interview these people in person, he was asking the same questions, thousands of miles away, these were virtual assistants in the Philippines, South Africa, and it was really, really interesting. There were two that I probably would have hired right on the spot. They were that good. Yeah, like, so so the honest questions, like getting down to the real nitty-gritty. Yeah, so so sometimes you my concern would be, you know, even, you know, in representing spexy or representing an optical, you want them to represent you and sometimes I feel like accents can really get in the way. So what had you or what what have you learned or noticed from all that? So I think some practices just don't have that person interacting with patients through the phone. So a lot of the the ones that I've heard they're using them to answer email or do admin tasks like billing, answering jobs, other things that might not be patient facing. So they, the patients might not even know that when they're emailing your office that they're emailing virtual assistant because that that accent doesn't come through. But I've heard other practices say they have, you know, maybe a virtual virtual assistant from South Africa. And patients are really interested and they ask good questions like, Oh, where are you from?  And I think the world now people are more accepting of virtual assistants and kind of find it unique and intriguing, but also part of our new world. I think it's location dependent.  So that might not be what they want as kind of the first base of their practice. But I know a lot of people are using them more for admin tasks that might not have the patient interact with them over the phone. Right. Yeah. And then some of the calls that I've been on with virtual assistants, even for Spexy, when we're, you know, trying to find our right one, we just actually got off a call this morning, where we were entering interviewing, excuse me, a few of them. And in the interview process, there was there were they were all from the same place. I believe this was Columbia that we were talking to this morning. And but some of them, like their accent is just so refreshing. And then others, their accents a little too strong, I think, to really educate and teach people about something. So that was my only, you know, kind of hold back with those. But some of them, like they all were from the same place with the same accent. And it sounded really lovely, like, Oh, where are you from? I think it helps to find your practice. Maybe it's something unique that you have somebody that answering the phone that sounds a little bit different. And it's a way maybe to get another patient demographic, like in my practice, we for a long, long time didn't have anyone who spoke Spanish. You know, I, I was the, I was, and while we didn't have a huge speaking population, we did have patients who came in and I would fumble through that. But we did hire a front desk person who could translate for me. But if there was an opportunity where that wasn't available, this could be an opportunity where you do have somebody that you can turn on a camera and have a dialogue and maybe have somebody a thousand miles away and they can translate for you. So it can open up an opportunity for a patient base or a patient demographic that you aren't serving at the moment, because you just don't have that person in your office or your Spanish is not as good as mine. I love it. Well, and that that's a perfect segue into the different areas of the office that it would be beneficial.  And so that, again, frees up that person to do, you know, way more beneficial and maybe even make more money in the office doing other things in the office. So where, where do you see, so you already mentioned translator, do you feel the same way with, I guess, the front desk? I think so. You know, I think the traditional front desk may be a thing of the past. If we can, depending on the way that you envision your authentic practice, you know, what is, what do you want it to look like? Do you want it to look high tech? Do you want patients booking their appointment online and not using the phone to call? Do you actually have to have somebody standing there to greet them or have they done all that work first? Have they uploaded their insurance information, you know, entered all their information in their patient portal? We don't hand them a clipboard anymore with paperwork. So do we actually need a person sitting there? Do we need somebody there to answer the phone? Adam was saying his virtual assistant actually answers the phone. So when they, they set up a phone tree that if somebody's calling to make an appointment, it gets pushed to her. So he said that eliminated about 80% of their phone calls in their office. So gosh, freeing up a massive amount of time for the rest of the staff to be able to do way more important things. I mean, not saying that not entering the phone is not important, but, but yeah, does it have to be somebody sitting in your office?  So how do you choose and how do you choose the right option? Do you put the person on hold? We don't, none of us love being on hold, or do you put the person in front of you on hold and go, you know, hold on, I know you want to pay all the bill that you owe, but can you just one second and and then that phone call turns into 15 minutes? How do you prioritize and balance that? And it can, I think it leads staff to feel overwhelmed, stressed, never making the right choice, you know, who do you pick? So if you can eliminate most of those phone calls and have that done through virtual assistant, you might not even need somebody you could have might not be a front desk, it could be a concierge or a greeter. And their only role is to welcome a patient to your practice, you know, really talk up. I'm so glad you're here. This is, you know, we're really excited to have the opportunity.  Right. Yes, I think I think the modern practice is going to reimagine that front desk and not have any that, you know, window that you slide and they slide back. Because who likes that? So really a person that's more of a concierge or a greeter who is 100% of the time fully available to work with the person in front of them and not be trying to manage the phone.  So you need to make sure that, you know, if the phone starts ringing, that somebody else needs to step in on the team to pick that up. But at the same time, you don't want to lose that either. So, so, you know, do you stop that person? And so this allows for offices to give more dedicated time to the person that's dedicated to that patient, whether that patient is on the phone or right in front of them. So I love that analogy because you're totally right because we have to train on it because it's such an issue.  Or it doesn't make that person feel special. And also, we do have those patients who, you know, want to call and talk to Judy in the office. And that doesn't mean that the virtual assistant, you know, is the only person that talks to them, they now might be able to triage that and say, yeah, I'm happy to get you over to her. Let me transfer you over, but it eliminates all of those calls coming through the front desk. If that's how you choose to use a virtual assistant or trying to really get people to engage with you online and do as much possible through scheduling online or using, you know, email or text. So but that also could be the virtual assistant who's the one answering the text. And I would never know. I mean, how do we know when we're making appointments? You know, I try and choose practices that I can make appointments online that have the text feature. I don't like being on the phone. I don't really want to pick up the phone to call. I'll let it for days and be like, you just have to pick up this phone. You could do this. So if I can text, but how do I know that the person I'm texting actually is in the practice? We have no idea. Yeah, yeah, this might be outsourcing that, you know, your primary care. So we don't actually know who's on the other end of that text message and your patients won't know as long as they're trained properly and how you want them to reflect your practice.  So making sure they're trained appropriately is super important. Yeah, yeah. And, and let's go to where you and I ended up having this conversation. When you were talking to one of your friends who was bringing on a virtual assistant, and you made the which I appreciate you made the recommendation that they utilize Spexy. So yeah, what first off, what made you think of us? It was a moment because this friend is the one who was the one who brought up virtual assistant to me and she reached out last week and said, I know that you love Spexy and you're going through the training yourself, which I am. I go through I'm slowly, slowly making my way through every every course. But she said, you know, do you think it would be great for a virtual assistant? And this lightbulb went off my head and I went, oh my gosh, it's absolutely perfect because we I think the downside or the hesitation of bringing on a virtual assistant is, oh my gosh, now it's one more person to train. How am I going to make this work? I don't have the time to train my in office staff, just all the things when you're bringing a staff member. And now you can't even have that person move with you, right? You're like, come with me, come with me, Brandon. You have to have the time to follow me. We're going to do on the run. Now you have to say, okay, now I have to sit. When do I ever sit in my practice and talk to somebody? How am I going to do this? Having a dedicated preset amount of learning for them that they can just log on to just as another staff member. It was like this lightbulb moment, like why couldn't they go through the entire specC program every course or the courses that you decide are for them and do it on their own time before they actually are released into into the world, just like you would do a staff member. And that's what Dr. Adam Ramsey said, his virtual assistant, he actually spent more time, significantly more time training than any staff member he had. I think he said she did about six weeks of training before she was allowed or, you know, to do anything where I don't know anyone that spends six weeks with an in-person training before the, you know, it's kind of like six minutes, okay, you've got a pulse. Later, and then we never have the time to train them. But I think, you know, that's what made me think, oh, my gosh, specC would be perfect for these virtual assistants because you're no longer having to do that homework and piece together through, you know, maybe your lab or your contact lens vendor or searching YouTube and maybe not even giving them the right information. If you're not watching those videos, it takes that burden off of us as the business owner to say, I'm going to create a library of resources for my virtual assistant. When it's already been done, it's already created. Here you go. As a staff member, I can monitor your progress. And then once I feel like you're ready to go, then I can kind of release you into whatever role it is. But it was this, this moment to me like, oh, my gosh, why are we making this more difficult than we have to? Why are we trying to create all these, these playlists and course content and looking for content for these people to train on when it's already available? Yeah. Yeah. And I appreciate that so much.  Because we really, you know, stress that that's important. And they know the reason why, right? This person is not going to be an optician. The virtual assistant is not going to be an optician. They're not going to be necessarily scanning in insurance cards. They're not going to be, you know, necessarily there are some that do billing, but maybe they're not doing any billing. But if they have a general knowledge and general understanding, that's everything that the Spexy 101 courses, but just a typical understanding of the foundation of optics and understanding what the independent optical goes through the conversations that they need to have and the proper answers for patients is super important. And if that virtual assistant comes equipped with that, they're just going to be so much more powerful for you. Right. And they can get started even sooner. You're not having to hire somebody and then fill their time trying to train them, but they'll be ready to go and they work, you know, I mean, Adam was saying, you know, they can work 30 plus hours. So you could really set them up to do. How long is Spexy 101? 101 is five, a little over five hours. If you were to like Netflix, I was one day, you know, you can monitor that they've done it, but they could be ready to go in just a few days if they know kind of the basics of how to be in an office. And they can even go through those additional courses if you really want them to be as knowledgeable as anyone. Yes, they're not selling glasses. They're not doing adjustments themselves. But then they even understand all of the verbiage we use and all of the things that the opticians know and be able to really have good conversations. And how would people know that they're not sitting in your office at that point? Right? Yeah, you would have no idea that it's something in South Africa or the Philippines that's asking these detailed questions that you don't have to come up with. And you don't have to put the flow of how to triage each question and think about that. It's already done for you. And one other thing that Adam Ramsey said as well, was that when the when the virtual assistant was going through their courses and doing their things granted, you know, we don't train on each individual EHR, but that he referred to an EHR course that she was going through. And she was like, she knew the course better than or she knew the EHR better than the rest of the staff because she actually went through all of the dream world, everyone that we hire would go through, you know, the onboarding and play in the sandbox of the EHR. At this moment, we are all understaffed. I think as long as somebody can type and breathe and talk, I think we're like, just we got to go. So we, yes, and I bet that that person could teach the in-person staff a thing or two about all of the features that the EHR has that we just don't maybe utilize because we just do what we have to do to get through the day. So yes, I mean, and when we when we when we added EHR, we did go through all those videos. And I don't think after that initial time that any staff member that we hired, everyone threw them again. So you're 100% right. But that also takes the burden off your staff. It takes the burden off your staff, you know, and you always talk about who do we have trained our staff or our new hires are best performing. Best person. Yeah.  But you know, if we're not doing it this way, you would now maybe take that person off the floor completely stick them in a dark room, teaching a virtual assistant or managing them where they could just be kind of set up with great tools and learn and then maybe come back with questions or feedback or yeah, the end of the day. Here's what I've done. Here's what I know. Here's what I feel comfortable doing. What's next? You know, what do you want? Yeah, yeah. And I think that, you know, looking at it this way and having the proper resources turns it into more of an exciting conversation than a oh, gosh, it's going to be more of a wait kind of conversation. So the other thing too, that we were talking about the other day was and this is why we decided to record the starting things were like, this is great is, you know, the offices that have spexy, at least, you know, the spexy plus membership, it's $34 a month for the entire office, right? And each individual user, you can add more users. So like three users can be added for $5 a month, and you can add more and more and more users, right? So if you think about it, if you're already a spexy office and you're training a virtual assistant, it's $1.66 a month. A $1.66, yeah. Just like to give them access to the resources and, you know, from the virtual assistants that I've been talking to, at least for spexy, because we're using some for some of our email communications and stuff like that, that we're looking to you, some I should say, but the conversations that I've been having with them is that they're hungry, hungry to learn. And so even just giving them access, like to learn all of the things, even though, you know, wanting them to do spexy 101, they're going to have access to the trainings.  I mean, it's amazing to me. I mean, I think especially with the, I think the virtual assistant position will be one that once people feel comfortable, how to add them, how to manage them. Really, how is the patient perception going to be? I think that's one that I hear as kind of a pushback. Well, my patients wouldn't like that. It wouldn't fly here. But I think once, you know, we're chronically understaffed and we're all having trouble finding in person staff and that that's an additional burden on our on our staff that we have in person. So we're trying to manage that culture and keep our current staff happy when they're feeling stressed and we're getting squeezed by insurance. So we need to see more patients. It's this perfect storm. I think that lends to bringing in somebody who, you know, doesn't have a physical footprint. So we don't need to build bigger offices, maybe, you know, we're not going to be really running into each other. We can add a number of virtual assistants without changing how we all fit in one space. I my first face was 1,100 square feet. We would not have, you know, we had a max of four employees any more than that. And we would have been tripping over each other. But thinking back to that space, you know, I mean, we could have had a virtual assistant who could do a lot of the admin work without being there. And that would allow us to not feel so cramped and tight, have more patients in the office instead of more staff and just really free up that the feel of a very small space. You get a lot more work done with less people as a benefit, but, you know, also solving a need of we need more people in general. So I think as people feel really squeezed and feel this pressure of finding people or the people that they're finding are not good quality or, you know, the things I read now, it's unbelievable, like people don't show up to interviews or they just stop to work. Or like tax like, no, I think I'm out today. I'm going to like trained for two weeks. Like so. So then you start all over. So what's the cost of rehiring another person going through the indeed postings and the interview time all of this time that takes us out of our practice when we could have somebody virtually a lower cost, you know, typically from what I see a lot of these are lower costs, depending on where you live. I live in Connecticut. I have not seen one virtual assistant that even comes close to the even comes close to my lowest paid employee. I mean, it is significant savings and costs, you know, you don't pay for benefits and insurance and retirement. So they're they're truly an hourly rate. And they there's a range of companies and hourly pricing based on their skill set and what they can do, whether they're your employee, whether they're there with you full time and that they're only working for you or part time they might be shared between multiple offices, which if somebody just needs somebody a few hours a week, that could be a great a great solution as well. Right. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I think the best way that they also talked about in the podcast as well was the best way to, I guess, introduce this to the team is the I think they did absolutely brilliant. And it's the same thing that I did with my team. As I said, OK, guys, go ahead and list out all of the things that you hate doing, you know, I honestly like, what are the things that you don't like doing? And if there's if we can find a virtual assistant who is willing to do that, then they're like, yeah, awesome. I mean, you're not replacing. Right. I think that's also what people feel is that our staff are going to feel, oh, my gosh, if she hires one person, is she going to clean house and let us all go? And the reality is, I think in our practices, there are there are things you can't outsource. There are things that needs to be done in person value to in person. I think, you know, I think absolutely outsource. There is stuff we want to keep in person and that depends on your practice. Well, and depending on what you outsource, it makes that in person more more valuable because they can focus on being there with that person rather than hearing the phone ringing in the background. Yeah. And I think, yeah, so if your staff know you're not trying to replace them, but you're trying to enhance what they do and take the burden off of them, I think it really is in how you approach that just to, you know, I'm trying, yeah, I'm trying to lessen your load. Help me help you. What don't you like? Let's get that off your plate so you can focus on doing the things you do like. And and I think that the way you approach that with staff is important versus I hired somebody who's going to be doing your work virtually, your shoes. That's a little bit different of approach of give me the things you don't like doing. What if I took those off your plate? What could you focus more on? How would that? How would that help you? And how would that help patients? Because it always comes down to the patients. All everything we do is for our patients. So if I took the five things you dislike doing from you and allowed you to focus on the five things you really do like doing, could I get you more education? Are you asking for more knowledge on billing? Are you looking to do more in the optical but you don't have the time because you're doing 10 jobs? If I took that away, what could you learn to better serve our patients and to give them a better experience so then everyone wins? Yeah, absolutely. I love it. I love it so much. Well, I'm actually really excited that you did an interview with Dr. Adam Ramsey as well, because I want to see even more after after his podcast on I own a business. So tell my people how to find the interview that you did. So it's part of Independence Strong. So Independence Strong is a jobs and publication focused on independent practices. So we should have that out sometime this summer. So look for it's called independent practices with Dr. Jennifer Stewart. So Adam Ramsey is my guest this summer. Once we get that out, we'll be really excited to hear his take again on how he implemented a virtual assistant as practice, what the challenges were, and where he's where he sees it going. And does he plan to add more? The answer is probably because it went so well. And he felt really confident that it's helping his practice that you know and really he agrees with me or I agree with him that this is the future and that again, when anything new comes out, it can be the hesitation to be one of the first to do it. But we're definitely not the first. There have been people that have been doing it for a long time. And there are just more companies there now, I think that are being making it easier to be more specific. So it's not just hiring somebody unknown, but they're either you can be as specific as you want and even hire somebody who was an optician or was a biller and and come on board to have knowledge of VSP and IMED and are truly ready to go.  And the great news is you can do either or both and be very successful. Yes, I love it. Great. Well, thank you. Thank you. I love how our talks turn into like, wait, we should record this. All of our brilliance needs to be recorded, but it was really this aha moment for me. I was going, oh, my gosh, you know, the question about I want to do this, but how do I get this person started? I'm like, we've not already exist. It's there. We have it. It's already there. And we just think about it. I think we I always think about Spexy as in person, Trina. How do I get my in person staff on board as quickly as possible? But now there's this whole great use for it for onboarding a virtual assistant to. Yes, I love it. Well, thank you for thinking of us and for recommending us. And yeah, everyone, check out Independent Strong. If you haven't yet, Jen's doing a great job with that publication. And that's it. We're out. Thanks, everybody.


We all know the upcoming recession is going to be really bad. It's going to be a double recession because recession plus inflation. However, there are lots of opportunities for you to get rich and also grow your career during a recession. First of all, during the recession, 68% of Fortune-French companies were born during a recession. I literally know somebody who joined Google as an employee 200. Once we went IPO, he immediately made $20 million. You can find the next Google as well. Just need to pay attention regarding where to find them. I also know somebody who joined Oracle half a year before Oracle went IPO and he literally became an angel investor right after IPO. On top of that, do not wait until recession is over. You should start investing yourself, upscaling yourself right now during the slow time of the recruiting market because you never know when you're going to get layoff. Could be next year, could be even tomorrow. If it's tomorrow, are you ready? Are you going to be the number one candidate in the job market? If not, you need to start learning and upscaling yourself starting from today.


Good afternoon. Welcome to the 2023 graduation ceremony of the University of Vermont Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. This is the 50th graduation of our school. Just a couple of notes. Those of you with cell phones, just silence them. And if there is the unusual event of a fire alarm, there are exits around the room here. So at this moment I'd invite you to be seated graduates. And I invite Interim Dean Alan Strong to the podium to offer words of welcome and to introduce our commencement speaker. Alan? So I am just honored and delighted to welcome you to the 2023 graduation celebration of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. It's a joy to see all of you, students, family members, friends, to celebrate your students' academic and personal accomplishments. Let me first just start by giving some well-deserved and hard-earned thank yous. First and foremost, I want to thank the families and friends of our graduates for helping getting our students to the finish line. The class has really endured some extraordinary circumstances here over the last couple of years during the pandemic. We all went through two really challenging years and I am so grateful that you got to celebrate your senior year with some degree of normalcy. Your students, our students would not be here if it were not for your love and support. Thank you all for all that you have done to encourage and inspire your students to reach this point. They have worked incredibly hard for this milestone and could not have done it without each of you. Students, I would like to have you stand and thank your family for their belief in you over the last four years. Thank you very much. Next I'd like to extend a huge thank you to our dedicated and talented faculty. You have been such an important part of our students' education in the Rubenstein School and a huge support to me during my rookie year as interim dean. Our faculty have given enormously in so many ways to provide a transformative, there's that word again, experience for all of you from NR1 or NR9 to NR206 in your senior year, from internships, research, semester abroad, service learning. Our amazing faculty have inspired and enlightened and helped you discover your own talents and passion over these four years. Students, please join me in thanking your faculty for their engagement, their mentorship, and their dedication to your success. And lastly, I'd love to thank our dedicated staff who support the school and students on an hourly basis, literally 24-7. Please join me in thanking our administrative staff, student services team, professional advisors, research staff for their year-round support of all of you. I can't think of a more caring or committed team. We should stand up staff if you're around or come out from behind the curtains. But today is really about you, students, and an opportunity to celebrate your success. Students, look to your left and look to your other left. So your friends and peers sitting next to you today will become part of a lifelong Rubenstein School community and will form from this day forward your professional network. You all share the common experience of being a graduate of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. You are now one of 6,000 students who have graduated from our school. You are the Class of 2023. Congratulations. It is now time to receive your charge before you receive your diplomas. So today I am honored to introduce my colleague and friend Natalie Augusto Filion. Natalie earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resources and a Bachelor of Music in 2005 from the University of Vermont. During this time we were honored to have her beautiful singing voice grace many UVM events. She returned to the Rubenstein School a few years later and earned her Master of Science in Natural Resources where she investigated climate change and climate preparedness in rural communities in the Dominican Republic. We are so excited to have Natalie back on campus to speak at our graduation celebration. So Natalie serves as the Deputy Chief Climate Resilience Officer for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and in this capacity she works with the Chief Climate Resilience Officer and the Office of Climate Resilience team to accelerate the implementation of statewide resilience policy and programs. Prior to her stint with the DEP Natalie served as the Sustainability Officer for the City of Newark, New Jersey. Resilience Manager with Sustainable Jersey and was the Program Officer with the Institute for Sustainable Communities. Throughout her career Natalie has helped to develop design and deliver national and regional capacity building programs for local governments in community-based climate and sustainability practitioners. Natalie was one of the first of the Rubenstein School's USDA Multicultural Scholars and has frequently joined students in our first year course Race and Culture and NR6 as a guest speaker. Natalie is purpose driven in her efforts to help build healthy, sustainable, resilient communities. She is also an amazing person and an inspiring leader in diversifying the environmental movement and fighting for racial and climate justice. Please join me in welcoming Natalie Augustel Filion. Oh and congratulations Class of 2023 you did it! Congratulations to you. I want to thank Dean Allen Strong and Assistant Dean Marie Vea who of course is in the background making everything run smoothly um for inviting me to be here with you today. It is an absolute pleasure and just the deepest honor and privilege to be able to share this moment. It's profoundly moving simply to be here with you marking this auspicious occasion. Am I, is it loud enough? Okay good just for you. No? Do I need to move it down? He's very tall. Is that better? Rubenstein class I was gonna tell you to like do a little piss-momper away but you've done that already. You made it here today and we all know that it has been one heck of a last few years. Parents, uncles and aunties, abuelitas, pop pups, other caregivers and honored elders in the crowd anyone who is connected with SFIA technology today. Let's take just a few quiet moments to let this moment truly sink in. If you're willing close your eyes this is to the families. Take a few deep breaths and try to bring up the mental image of today's graduates as curious toddlers at that inquisitive age of seven, eight, nine, at 15, 16 just when they were starting their college journey. Now open your eyes and see them today graduates you are truly a sight to behold. I was sitting in your seat about 18 years ago today and I had done the five-year plan as you probably heard because of the double degree so I was done I was so done with school. I was ready to move on I was excited to dive into whatever came next and I had a plan. I had a job unlike some of y'all I'm sure I was able to face that dreaded question of what comes next which I've been trying to train myself not to ask our graduates who've heard it enough. And so at the same time though I was sitting there with a bit of a mental fog I remember that feeling of sort of unease commencement with all the pomp and circumstance that this rite of passage connotes demarcates a moment of transition in our lives. Up until now most of your life has been defined by that rigid schedule of a scholar. Your days have mostly revolved around your coursework perhaps you know time with your friends floormates and internship sports service activities and upon graduation you're leaping into a bit of an unknown a new way of operating that's really disconnected from that central identity of student that you've held up to this point. But the thing about this class is that you've been there already you've been through the unknown and whereas I was perplexed about what was to come you've all found a way to live with uncertainty. In the middle of your first year you were forced to adapt to a setting that no one knew how to navigate and I won't believe for this point because I don't particularly enjoy reliving those pandemic lockdown memories. The fact is that you've already demonstrated an incredible degree of personal and mental toughness to get to where you are today it is truly commendable. I hope that you will hear this many times for the next few days and I'm grateful for a chance to say it I'm very proud of you. Even as I recognize that the general sentiment in the room is one of hope or what's to come I know that it is also tinged with a sense of anxiety about what the future holds both personally and with respect to the future of our planet. I spent a lot of time trying to decide what I wanted to convey to you today and landed on the realization that what felt most urgent what felt most pressing to share was to reflect on ways that I have found to tap into the feeling that we have in the room today of trust and hope and connectedness to each other because if you're anything like me you will certainly find yourself in desperate need of reconnecting to that sense of possibility. On the days when the work of advancing resilience sustainability and environmental justice weighs just a bit too heavy. Let me start I'll just introduce myself briefly um actually Ellen did that already so I don't have to do this again um but um beyond my sort of academic credentials um I was born in the Dominican Republic I was raised in Inwood on the very northern tip of Manhattan and growing up I was lucky enough to do a bunch of sort of nature science excursions and other wilderness programs that really cemented my interest in studying the environment and figuring out a way to be a change agent in this environmental movement and professionally I've had a number of titles um I was an environmental educator program officer resiliency manager in a volunteer capacity I've also led a community organizing campaigns and I was a founding member of two local chapters of 350.org I'm a member of my city's environmental commission and I'm an elective officer in my child's parent teacher association and so I share a little bit of that context to say that I know a thing or two about what it takes for people to come together to make change in their communities and um because of that I also know what it feels like when um you have what seems like an unshakable frustration with how slowly change happens I was around seven um so my daughter is here in the brilliant sequined address um I was about seven which is how she is now when Dr. James Henson testified at the United States Congress about this phenomenon called global warming and we've all been witnessing the shifts in our planetary equilibrium in the relatively short decades of my life we can confidently say that around mid-century when Sophia grows up to be my age and may very well be raising a young child of her own that we will live in a world vastly altered by this phenomenon and while our projections about the impacts of climate change are stark I believe with every fiber of my being that our collective creativity and ingenuity is all we need to face this existential threat and finding the way to come back again and again to that deep sense of hope and trust in ourselves in us here now is what's most urgent for me to share with you today I want to remind you that taking the step into the role of a change agent takes heart it takes courage and it demands a posture of curiosity about developing policies and programs and interventions that are effective but also a posture of curiosity about with regards to self-expiration right about what it takes to be an environmental leader and how your talents your unique access and gifts can be harnessed to wield influence and the levers of power being a sustainable champion requires living working being in community with other like-minded people and it requires that we give ourselves grace to step back take a breath and re-center before diving right back in probably most importantly it requires that we find that path back into that connection to hope and human connection and it requires that we hone our ability to imagine what's possible especially when we inevitably feel that pull of apathy and anxiety it takes real effort it takes work to get back into the mindset of a change agent when you've veered off course I don't pretend to have all the answers but I've been down this road for long enough now that I can share a little bit of a look back and what I'll do now is just share a couple stories both related to my experience here as a scholar at UVM and with the Rubinstein School that cement these aha moments in my life that continue to show up over and over and I hope will be moments of learning for you as well so the first is a moment from undergrad I had you know the college is the place where you learn about difference in a in no other way you know it's really unique opportunity to learn about the difference in people's lives and the way we see the world in our varied perspectives and the parents and family here might not realize that everybody has to go through everybody at the Rubinstein School for environmental natural resources has to go through a core curriculum that's designed to integrate the more sort of technical aspects of the work with the cultural social economic context of how we do environmental change how we affect environmental change and so during my time as undergrad the racing culture course was called NR6 I'm not sure there's been a lot of name changes but at some point in that semester we're asked to partner up and share an example with our you know our fellow student of something unique about our upbringing that could help demonstrate how we might see the world through different lenses and as a city girl I was basically reared to be afraid of the dark and ever vigilant so I shared that one thing that I thought was unique to sort of my experience relative to this person as a woman as a woman of color as an urbanite was that I don't enter an elevator without looking at that top corner mirror to see around the corner and the young man I shared this with was completely and utterly bewildered by this fact he was confused and not only was he unaware that some of us grew up in a fairly near constant low level of anxiety around our safety and well-being I actually think that there just weren't that many tall buildings in a small town that he grew up in so it just like wasn't a perspective that came up often for him and that for me was actually incredibly um awakening as well because it helped me to understand how almost impossible it is for us to see the world the way others see the world so it helps spur a kind of clarity about why it is so very important that we learn about others and their experience and that at the same time that we take the courage to sort of share our stories and the way that we see the world along with others in this community of environmentalists and because I think we all at this point especially with the the course curriculum and and the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and all of the ways in which we're sort of reevaluating the trajectory of this country we understand that this field has for very long been predominantly made up of people who don't look like me right so folks like myself immigrants low income those who have been trained whether explicitly or implicitly to be afraid of dark lonely places where there aren't too many that look like us so read like any environmental program as members of this environmental movement we will continue to keep those folks out of the conversation and we do ourselves a disservice by not creating enough space for black indigenous people of color what I have happily started to turn people of the global majority to bring that creativity and the insights into environmental problem solving without authentic and intentional efforts to set the table in a way that includes folks from communities like mine we will continue to perpetrate the policies of exclusion and othering that made up the early days of the environmental movement so I want to share that we need to open doors and untangle pathways for a diversity of voices to join this movement with the same degree of reverence that we all apply to the tenet of leave no trace when we spend time in well places we need to make room at the table in order for diversity equity and inclusion to be a core operating principle of your professional careers you will need to have the courage to make your values known to others you work with and lead with a commitment to advancing innovative solutions that allow you to bring together those insights that are needed for the solutions of our time when you create a discipline of seeking out those voices who may be underrepresented you open the door for a world of solutions you may never have considered before so as was shared I'm currently serving as New Jersey's deputy chief I helped the deputy chief crow climate resilience officer and basically the bulk of my job is to help facilitate a process with New Jersey's inter agency council on climate resilience the moment we're drafting our first ever resilience action plan which happens to be focused on extreme heat and as you can imagine when it comes to conversations about heat and how it shows up it's forcing conversations and requiring us to have a level of engagement with those most directly impacted so that might include farm workers toll booth operators pregnant mothers youth athletic program directors folks who may be struggle to pay their energy bills and so even if they have an ac they're not turning it on these are not the typical attendees of a webinar hosted by a state environmental agency to talk about climate change right so I come to this conclusion over and over again that we need to be creative and meet people where they're at sometimes you'll find yourself advocating for stuff that feels a little disconnected from the work of climate action or protecting biodiversity or that drive to ignite the passion for environmental stewardship that comes from fishing and hunting and wilderness exercises whatever your path wherever your path leads you we're repeatedly needed needing to be in a place of advocating for making the table for building that table a commitment to the principles of justice diversity equity and inclusion is something you can carry with you anywhere you go and your words have more power than you think if you're ever feeling some degree of discomfort about speaking up it's probably even more important that you find the courage to speak up it really warms my heart that when Paul Hawkin helped to convene an international team of over 200 scientists and researchers thought leaders under the coalition of project drawdown so for folks who aren't familiar with it please definitely go look it up his goal was to prepare a comprehensive list of evidence-based solutions for reversing global warming and it really touched me to learn that one of the most effective strategies identified through that rigorous scientific process was and I kid you not educating girls in doing so we harnessed the ingenuity and the inventiveness of a full half of the world's population who in many countries have been systematically left out of educational opportunities project dot-down has a compilation of drawdown stories that feature individuals taking action in communities all over the u.s. Atlanta minnesota pittsburgh and a few years ago grist actually issued a series of interviews that was called nope and change for folks that like the parks and rec series this is a play on leslie nope's name and the obama's campaign tagline and it similarly featured sustainability champions talking about their work in their own words how it shows up in their homes so what brings me hope is knowing that i'm not alone in this work that now i have you all as colleagues as we are advancing this environmental movement that is so important to all of us if you're listening and learning and working alongside others with a similar commitment to building a bigger more inclusive table you will find yourself in the company of a group of change agents that help to fuel one another seek out these people and their stories it will aid your creativity it will help you see new and different ways to approach this work and remember please you can and should allow yourself the permission to click that unfollow button to reduce the number of folks that are dampening that passion and that dedication so my second anecdote today in the last that i'll share comes from the summer while i was completing my graduate lever research i was with the cohort of the field naturalist from the college of agriculture and life sciences and ecological planners here at the rubenstein school and the master's program places grad students with organizations and agencies that um to complete a project so i uh was lucky enough to be able to leverage my uh professional personal network to secure graduate internship placement with the national council on climate change and the democratic public which is my birth country and as part of that job i was tasked with basically understanding how the localized impacts of two out of season extreme weather events in 2007 uh tropical storm olga which hit on november 30th and a hurricane noel which came about 20 days later but a couple weeks later in early december they hit this agrarian these series of agrarian village but what the impact was around lago and riquillo in the southwestern democratic republic the lago and riquillo is a hyper saline lake just to give you a tiny bit of context it's the lowest point in all the antilles it's about 150 feet below sea level with a really large drainage basin probably 10 uh fairly substantial rivers drain into it and it has no outlet so it floods regularly right um for hundreds of years there's been a routine of fluctuating lake levels with the rainy season and then on a 10 to 15 year cycle there's some kind of extreme weather event that increases the precipitation however the lake's levels uh and extent had not followed the historical patterns as is the story that we hear over and over again and in fact it has not returned to normal ever since uh so it reached considerable impact on the surrounding towns and my research project focused on understanding how those folks in those villages surrounding lago and riquillo were making the connections between those two out of season storms and sort of global climate trends and using that conversation to identify strategies for preparedness and how to better cope so that summer i interviewed about three dozen community leaders farmers ranchers school and hospital directors social service agency heads and what i learned might not surprise some of you but um it appeared to most folks that um and actually this is something that i talked about quite a bit with john who was on my on my committee um in the same way that maybe you might experience these conversations around the holiday table with your families folks will often think of climate change as sort of like an ivory tower issue little too esoteric and what people ultimately wanted was for the dominican federal leadership to do more improvements around quality of life issues supporting local economic development access to quality education and health care etc so i was really struggling because i felt like i had squandered my time and that this research and this opportunity to sort of use my unique skill set right dominican you know ability to sort of relate to folks in a cultural context and also someone very in engage in in climate action work and and i brought that back to the now retired dean wong professor wong um and john and dr azin zia for folks that know him of and the thing that landed was that the aha moment for me came in the realization that if we are not making the connections between climate change and people's everyday lives the everyday lives of people and families then we are way off the mark so i implore you to find that through line find the ways in which your work whatever that is connects to the core values of community building of of families and make sure that as you are working as a change agent you can continually make that connection back for yourself and for others i found that many times when my frustration with my work is particularly high it's because i feel so disconnected from real tangible and meaningful change so i've talked a bit about the importance of finding your source of hope and your source of connection back to the actual needs of families these values keep me grounded but at the same time allow me to imagine a different world so what i want to leave you with is this idea that you have the skills and the knowledge to make meaningful impact in this world you've received a stellar education you've direct access to a network of nationally and internationally recognize thought leaders in this work by virtue of your connections to the rubinstein school give yourself permission to lead give yourself permission to mess up reflect and try again and there's a line from a song called i'll i'll rise up by andre day where she says all we need is hope and for that we have each other thank you thank you to natalie and i'm now pleased to invite our marshal dr claire ginger to continue the presentation of diplomas thank you dean strong i was just going to come up and rest control of the microphone thanks natalie for your words it's so i'm so proud to see you at this place in your life and thanks so much for sharing your stories and now it is time for the presentation of diplomas during this ceremony we will recognize the following academic honors five beta kappa uh five beta kappa inductees summa cum laude the top one percent of the rubinstein school graduating class magna cum laude the next three percent of the graduating class and cum laude the next six percent of the graduating class now to present the diplomas in environmental science professor carol adair graduates with a bachelor of science degree in environmental sciences please rise and come forward page aldenberg leah emmerg emmerine elissa borosso bernard keombo bergenkater julia bolton elizabeth brown megan jessica brown georgia megan brichter samuel august buswell clara servosky loren chasanti jamie thomas cullhost denise dutton anna edgren the cilia eggler magna cum laude rachel elia cum laude five beta kappa harissa pauline finnerty christine phleming magna cum laude isabella jennava lillian grady avigail ellen harbinson ryan kiara hart jake bartley hogan catherine hughes ray and keo liya israel summa cum laude lola jacuzzi jack knight claire langan cum laude christine lawson claire sophia lockwood talia h loyter trevor henry marshall katelyn summer mesaski katerina anna meneese baila rain munich trevor james nasser erin e o mera paila i perry guma cum laude olivia reese qualls claire elizabeth riley batista benjamin timothy rinewald emma shea rosenow haley isabella sanfie jolly scott olivia springer elie stein cum laude jonah tan twan stern tyler d sullivan lillian tuska tusko rachel m tobler elah murie weigel logan charles white uh to present the diplomas in environmental studies program director amy sidle graduates with a bachelor of science degree in environmental studies please rise and come forward kelly and bill hearts david austin brantley sophia caldwell maxwell joseph caracuzzo page lin carpenter roan gray karak andy cornish julia de lesio wilder daniel kiran babakian day savernin loman alexandra lin de ferrante magna cum laude rachel drill eliza hutchinson filler hannah mary lemming mave forbes vivian donelson gilman emily beartris glass lucas goldfluss abigail g gollitz georgia hannock dora hillker ania freeman claus cum laude grace greetler andrew thomas lebowitz noah mendel levin kasey erin mara emilia grace mccabe trisha catherine melton ella miller hodge carlie wisdom morris magna cum laude abigail justice osha nasi emma mcdougal pruce elizabeth hope rackisader sophie grace regina elizabeth roads anna grace suberling kora louise smith cum laude jennifer lillian sogan logon j solomon parley j valco sophia alexis valisillo heather walker bailey grason wine hold liz irine woodhol to present the diplomas in forestry program director toni demotto with a graduates with the bachelors of science in forestry please rise and come forward patrick roy alex andrew james airs danielle hailey burger magna cum laude brya susanne schoenyer magna cum laude andrew miguel kondi ellis davis patrick finnegan colby avery fong cum laude soyer forbes elinor waterhouse fuchs max herz ethan philip laroe madeline jane lords jonathan louis cum laude zachery martinik connor mccourt kai mcgovern david matthew orley cum laude daniel alan perry chase douglas reagan aiden gabriel g rose kathryn rose lucas russo michael celerno jacob stever alexander w voki i will present the diplomas and natural resources graduates with a bachelor of science degree and natural resources please rise and come forward x bernich lucas drogales walter eamon kailey goss baker elinor sage jaffee joseph rance riley tele richards to present the diplomas and parks recreation and tourism program director patricia stokowski thank you graduates with a bachelor of science degree in the fantastic program parks recreation and tourism please rise and come forward kathryn mary conlan emilia sydney curly her degree is presented by her aunt lauren mckillop from the college of education and social services john russell evans mara mcdonald sophie haze moyer oliver ramming willow shawinsky riley shannon sophie thyer cum laude to present the diplomas and wildlife and fisheries biology program director jason stockwell graduates with a bachelor of science degree in wildlife and fisheries biology please rise and come forward jack baker david batty elinor bernier valerie a bissette amen c kaffrey elijah leigh dwell meyer capri ethan anderson car james p clausen clerissa emma crissati mave cronin jess davidson alejandro delos rios kyle h elms john samuel farel samuel d fisk mia harris michael kerry jensen thomas keegan hannah leddie zoey ann lewis malachi lytle spencer mon eric mcglysat susanne moray straighten christina elizabeth mirtha emily rose parabello guido rinehart rare alex raylick jessica ridge rebecca shea ross ali shires benjamin c simons cum laude bethany helena smith jonathan lee solomon camilla maria sucre julietta c tucci jack hillebrant wallace grace m yaris congratulations yay now we will recognize students who have completed requirements to graduate as university of vermont honors college scholars the honors college is a three to four year academic enrichment experience that culminates in the preparation presentation and defense of a senior honors thesis interim associate dean john erickson will present the undergraduate honors college scholar awards john all right here we go honors college could we have our honors students please rise and come up forward starting with jack baker all of you all of you come at once please they'll sort you out i don't need to do that come on up okay up first jack baker thesis title comparison of stocking strategies on lipid resources in age one to age three feral lake trout his advisor was ellen marzden samuel august bouswell thesis title ability of vermont restored wetlands to sequester phosphorus from floodwaters advisor eric roy amen c kafri thesis title effects of substrate type on threats to threatened northern diamondback terrapin nest success and cape cod massachusetts advisor britney moiser loren chrissanti fight thesis title characterization of ldd moth defoliation in vermont comparing uas and satellite data advisor jarlith o'neill dunn cecilia agler thesis title designing and testing a monitoring protocol for river corridor easements in vermont advisor chris steppenock rachel elliott thesis title environmental injustice from the ground up variation of soil health in burlington vermont's community gardens advisor debora nyer ryan chiari heart thesis title early life tradeoffs and golden mantled ground squirrel sociality and growth rate advisor katlyn wells emma shea rosenau thesis title the impact of environmental factors on invasive v major management in the sonoran desert advisor eric roy benjamin c simons thesis title characterizing dietary niche of two exotic ungulates in central new mexico advisor alan strong elie stein thesis title evaluating the success of fishing advisories among angling groups in the greater burlington area vermont advisor ariana keopeli grace m yaros thesis title use of artificial nest nest boxes by american kestrels in western vermont advisor alan strong please congratulate our honors thesis awardees yeah we tried to hold out on one of those gifts but everyone got one so now professors julian gallford and walt polman will recognize one of our graduates who received a university award at this morning's commencement ceremony julian and walt i would like to invite jonah stern to join us on the stage jonah is the recipient of the kitter medal which is awarded to the uvm senior ranking first in leadership scholarship and character it is named of honor in honor of fred t kitter an 1880 graduate who received his md degree in 1883 and later served on the university of vermont board of trustees jonah's nominator wrote jonah shares an extraordinary strength of readily being able to apply his friendly personality great interpersonal skills advocacy to support students from marginalized backgrounds as well as his outstanding curiosity to explore multicultural relations to a predominantly white institution throughout his time at uvm jonah has served as an excellent leadership role in the asian student union and for people of color outdoors jonah it's been an honor being your advisor jonah has also played an exceptionally important role as a leader in nr one and two the rubenstein school's year year long set of courses for all entering students natural history and human ecology in addition to serving as an outstanding teaching assistant jonah also linked the urban ecologies of burlington and new york city by forging an innovative partnership exchange with the high school for environmental studies min hatton and the new york's department of parks and recreation thank you jonah interim dean strong will now recognize masters of science master of professional studies and doctor of philosophy graduates following this he will recognize emeriti faculty and then offer some concluding remarks thank you claire so congratulations to our students graduating with a master of science master of professional studies and doctor of philosophy degrees these students were honored yesterday in a special hooding ceremony that was conducted by the university's graduate college ten of our graduates received master of science degrees six of our graduates received masters of professional studies degrees and two graduates received doctor of philosophy degrees and you can find their names their thesis titles and their advisors in your program so i know that uh all of you were welcomed to the rubenstein school by dean nancy matthews who left for central michigan university and last year she refused to allow us to read a citation of her so um i get to do that now unfortunately she's not here but uh dr nancy ellen matthews you earned your phd from the suni college of environmental science and forestry and from 2014 to 2022 you're so you served as dean and professor of wildlife and fisheries biology in the rubenstein school at uvm your leadership sparked unprecedented growth in the school you hired 24 new faculty during your eight years as dean and doubled our perennial internship program your vision for cutting-edge research led to our new hybrid research vessel and laid the groundwork for a research and stewardship center on mount mansfield you catalyzed the school's work around diversity equity and inclusion you raised funding to support students of color and helped other universities integrate de i into their curricula in 2018 you awarded the uvm mosaic center student of color tim shiner outstanding ally award thank you for your leadership in growing the reach and reputation of the rubenstein school graduates this is my first time being up on stage in front of you and i'm just so honored to have bain able to work with all of you and our faculty and staff throughout this academic year i learned so much from you whether it's in the classroom whether it's in the field or in the hallowed hallways of akon thank you for your support and helping me navigate this first year as interim dean in several courses in the rubenstein school we've talked about the work of dr rachel Naomi reman dr reman founded the reman institute for the study of health and illness at right state university which um and a lot of her work is really focused on the role of personal relationships in healing and one of my favorite essays by dr reman gives three perspectives on viewing life in the world around us helping fixing and serving dr reman writes when we help we see life as weak when we fix we see life as broken but when we serve we see life as whole and i find these perspectives really helpful when i think about how i engage with others am i coming to the class to fix you all am i coming to help you or am i coming to serve you helping and fixing our not relationships among equals um they really amplify the shortcomings of others but when we serve we come from a place of equality which requires us to know that our humanity in our community in fact all of us as part of a learning community are more powerful than our individual expertise and when we serve when we serve we have to ask different types of questions we can't simply ask who do you cook for we also must ask who cooks for you who cooks for you all and serving cans but can be translated into any language even the language of the natural world and i would love to have you all join me in evoking service through the bird world students faculty on three i i think we need service one more time and we all put put our bird service together on three one two three so the next time you hear a barred owl consider the way in which you are engaging with others are you helping are you fixing or are you serving i wish you all the very best please stay in touch and come back to visit us best of luck as you move forward in whatever comes next in your life thank you all all of you for being here today safe journeys and congratulations class of 2023 i saw one or two hats go up but there go there go a few more that looked pretty good in fact more enthusiastic than that barred owl it is my pleasure to declare these proceedings to be adjourned i do ask that the audience please remain in their seats until the faculty and graduates have recessed thank you


Gung Sao, put it white. Just the left hand. Gung Sao, just the little pempeng seo. Gung Sao, no pulgjang. Do it together. We'll be gunung seo, uh on the bottom still dictionary. OK, so we have a shop one-between just game show for.


Hi, I'm Michelle Patterson, June's What's Neat starts right now. The What's Neat show is sponsored by Lombard Hobbies, your value hobby shop for over 40 years of modelers helping modelers. Big inventory, value pricing, fast shipping and great service. Additional support is provided by Walthers Trains, everything you need to build a great model railroad. Check out their website at walthers.com and buy American limited models. The relentless pursuit of accuracy. Check out their website at americanlimitedmodels.com and thank you for helping us support the best hobby in the world. This is What's Neat for June 2021. I'm your host Ken Patterson and this month we do have a good show in that it's been asked on the podcast in readers comments over and over again. Hey Ken, why don't you share with us your home layout because we only see bits and pieces of it on any various show. So that's what I've decided to do this month in that I haven't been able to do interviews in the last 14 months due to COVID. So it was just as easy to interview myself and walk you through my entire home layout going back to 2014 to present day. So I show you all the different areas in St. Louis that I modeled one to one off of satellite images just to get everything absolutely as accurate as I could because I model on this layout for the run by effect. So it's a really neat presentation this month Ken Patterson's home layout. Also this month I'd like to thank very much Wothers out of Milwaukee Wisconsin for sponsoring the What's Neat show. They've sent me some brand new turnouts that are in their new line of code 83 and code 100 nickel silver turnouts and these are absolutely beautiful. I've got a number 10 right here and I've been studying this tonight in that I've noticed that these have got solid rails to the points to the frog which makes great conductivity with no hinge points. They also come with scale spikes and beautiful wood grain in the ties. They've got a power feed wire so you can power up your frog on this turnout and they've also got mounting holes right next to the rail so you can literally spike this turnout down when you mount it to your layout. So these are going to be available again in code 83 and code 100. These DCC friendly turnouts will be available in number fours, fives, six, eights, tens and soon there'll be two curved turnouts available in the Wothers catalog. So check it out at the Wothers website at Wothers.com. I also pulled out my Wothers catalog the 2021 catalog which is one of the best tools in my shop that I use all the time and I look these up and sure enough they're all listed as new products in the 2021 catalog. So check it out and then order yours from Lombard Hobbies in Lombard Illinois. Thank you very much Lombard for sponsoring the What's Neat Show. Also I'd like to say thank you very much to Robert Steers. That is American Limited Models and the San Juan Model Company. The reason I bring up Robert is that you can watch podcast number 154 and be introduced to Robert in that he was on that show and he shared with us some of their HO scale and O scale models that they're coming out with. Now it's really exciting that they're coming out with a lot of modern equipment and things that the modelers are going to love in the next couple of years and we will have exclusive announcements on the What's Neat podcast and the What's Neat show in order to share all of this great information with you in the best hobby in the world. And so with that let's continue on with the rest of this June 2021 What's Neat. Hello this is Michael Gross and you're watching What's Neat with Ken Patterson. This layout is currently I want to say this layout's nine or ten years old now and what it is it's a platform not a design that you can look in a book and read necessarily how to build because the way I built my layout was it had to fit a need it had to help me make a living it had to help me shoot ad photos and it had to be a presentation of prototypical accuracy where various scenes and bridges on this layout are in fact actual one-to-one scenes that I picked here around St. Louis to model the layout after. I learned a lot of what I learned before I built this layout from the Midwest Valley modelers layout that was a modular club where I had done about 35 train shows with that layout and over that period of time over 10 years of working with that layout I learned something that was very important that instilled and followed me all the way through to the home layout that I've built today and that is to build the layout modular by doing it that way you can take the sections outside you can take the sections out replace them with other sections of various eras and various seasons so if I pulled out this river section I could either have a fall scene or maybe ice it over and do another module that matches this table size and do a winter scene so with that type of concept that would eliminate complete tear downs as often it is I kind of got bored with my layouts in my lifetime about every four to five years I wanted to see something different and by building it this way instead of ripping out the entire layout one by fours plaster and everything all I had to do is take these sections off of the tabletops that they are on top of slide them out and replace them with new sections everything's made out of foam everything's wrapped in oak so that looks like a piece of furniture I followed this construction and continuity through the entire 157 feet loop that runs around the perimeter of my studio so that while I'm working on various projects for the model industry I can enjoy the occasional run by of a train on my layout while I'm working and just kind of you know get inspired by what it is that we all enjoy so in this video I really want to present to you how it is I designed and built my layout and that's where we're going to go next one of the first modules or dioramas on my layout that I want to talk to is kim's wick this is kim's wick missouri which is about seven miles south of where I live on the de soto sub the main line that runs behind my house here this is an old missouri pacific bridge so the consists it's running across it right now is in fact politically correct and accurate for an era this scene I could have never built to the accuracy and the degree of of measuring everything and getting it right I really relied heavily on google earth I took a section a page of google earth I traced on top of it what would fit into my layout room accordingly so that I could create this section that would curve and arch around the door allowing access of a free swinging door here and this section I literally took laser meters and I walked everything I measured the distance of the peers I measured the height of the water to the bridge which was 29 feet and I also relied some another tool that I started using a lot was these handheld gps units that would give me elevations so that as I would walk along various sections within three feet of accuracy is what they were at the time which is pretty darn accurate for us for model building it allowed me to know where I was elevation wise which I could then re-verify with the laser meter by bouncing measurements off the pavement and the girder bottoms and I was able to measure this entire structure and then scratch build it to fit right in the location that I needed for my layout this module has been used for various ads it was really a starting point to show me how hard it would be to model one to one whereas I've got another seven different bridges on this layout that were built the same way using these devices and using google earth to pull off the final results this is a almost four foot wide area on my layout where I built this lift out section that's completely oak wrapped foam the whole thing is self-contained it's held in place by door hinges so when I pull out the pins when I take off the little rail joiners the same thing over here I've got door hinges I pull out the pins I let the rail joiner slide off and I have one power plug on this side now the whole unit will lift up clean the whole thing is completely wrapped in oak bottom side top side is scenery foam cut to shape put in place now this can go anywhere I need it to go I have complete access in and out of the basement simply put it right back in when you're finished door hinges allow everything to line up smooth and tight slide your rail joiners back in and then put your pins right back in this is a very foolproof way to do a lift out section in my opinion it's 10 years old right now it has not warped and I've had no issues with any type of foam shrinkage on this section of scenery at all so I suggest this is a good way to make a lift out section that's not hinged just a lift out convenient way to give access in and out of the layout room this is another bridge this is bridges on the old Frisco line currently the Burlington northern Santa Fe railroad and this bridge was just down the hill from my old high school where I used to go to school so that after school a lot of the kids kind of use this area as a melting place to come meet hang out after school on the way home when they walked and this is just a section that I remember from a childhood memories whereas I thought I really wanted to model this the bridge peers individually are columns the graffiti is matched from the photographs exactly on and the old trestle that used to fall through the scene here is still represented by the old poles and the old columns coming up out of the rockwork so this whole diorama is really one that's also modeled one to one pretty much exact right off of Google earth and so far I'm kind of happy with the results of this one this scene is freelanced this is a BLMA 200 foot truss bridge where I just completed the peers on this one in fact I used my characteristic of texture paint to make the water for the surface and this whole scene is 16 feet long designed to be lifted up taken outside photographed create ads create good videography outside and then drops right back in here on the table surface so this is not prototype this is freelanced but using prototype standards to build the freelance the next section of the layout that I'm going to talk to you about is prototype it's not finished now I don't have the peers completed yet but this is the Merrimack River crossing south of me about four miles where the Merrimack River divulges and comes into the Mississippi River now the Merrimack River is a small river a tributary that actually drains off the south part of St. Louis and the county south of St. Louis they all flow into this river and then go into Mississippi the bridges are in fact about a half a mile from the mouth where it leads into the Mississippi and it's a section that I've always remembered as a child that I wanted to model it's easy to gain access to it and you can also google earth that which I did to create this four foot by eight foot long prototypically measured accurate model of the location it's just not completely finished to the degree of detail that you're used to and I don't know that I'm actually going to finish it because I'm planning on a redesign on this layout in the near future now I want to walk you one more thing this is where these tools were the most important the laser meter and the GPS I used to a degree of being able to triangulate measurements I was able to measure from my deck what I'm trying to explain is this is where I live I've modeled 1200 feet of bluff 1200 feet of mainline measuring the bluff's height with GPS measuring from the tracks to various rock faces with the laser meter bouncing off these measurements standing up on the upper deck and shooting the track and figuring out what the degree of angle was once I got all these measurements written on a piece of paper and I had accurate numbers it was very easy to triangulate the measurements double check your work with the google earth images and start simply carving out foam into what turned out to be the 125 foot cliff that I in fact live on and I've got 1200 feet of mainline I've got various neighbor's homes the backyards are accurate and finished the homes aren't built yet but this is this is where I could not have done this section of layout without the tools that really enabled me to do it and that's GPS and laser meters they're priceless in developing one-to-one scenes even even the trees in the foreground here these trees are measured with the lasers bent off of photographs these are accurate wire models of the trees that actually stand 125 foot tall in the river floodplain below the bluff this is in fact the google earth image that I used I had helicopter images of my home so I was able to use all the various references and then here I am in fact carving out the bluff sections and it's just ditto all way across I got as much visual information as I needed from the air and from what's available online in order to model where it is that I live now every layout needs a storage yard or a staging yard this one's not very fancy I've got an easy control panel that controls blocks in the entire yard so I can shut down all the models so that when I'm programming DCC on the main line I don't accidentally program something else it's on the main line so I like to put in kill switches on everything so that I can shut down the blocks the next thing I want to talk about is the structure of the yard this is not very complicated it's only about 16 inches deep it's wide enough to hold seven or eight tracks and allow me to have seven trains on and a pass through track at the same time it's all straight and level it's all built on top of steel one bar two by fours so what I'm doing is I'm taking metal studs I'm forming them together into a square liquid nailing it all together and what I've got are studs that will not warp they're spread over the long distances so that underneath I've got counter space and workspace so that I can work in my shop this is just a holding yard a staging yard a place to store trains when they're not running I power the layout using a digi tracks throttle system so I've got a main power supply here I've got a five amp digi tracks power supply powering the entire layout and I've also got it set up so I can interface it with my computer right here at the workbench and run the train and do my programming with the coder pro I built a I used a ramp meter from Tony's chain train exchange and I built this box for it to in to house it and it wouldn't enclosure and then I put digi tracks face plates on that so I've got access to the digi tracks local net system and then I've got my four throttles sitting right here in a nice cradle plus I've got a dc power pack all set up and ready in case I want to switch the switch and run the layout on just regular dc throttle I use stop watches to time the trains once in a while so that when I get two trains running at the same time in the layout I can make sure they're running at exactly the same speed the cables for the digi tracks system run through the ceiling they run actually through an umbilical cord on the layout from my desk to the layout and then the wires are run all through the ceiling to all four corners of the layout so I've got equal distribution of power I've got no boosters and so far everything's worked out really good now to pass through my window I had to have a 12 foot long one foot wide section of layout so that it would not be too obtuse and block the view of looking out towards the bluff in the river that's why I live here you want to see it but I created a section that was only four inches high this is completely removable and in fact about to get replaced with a dual gauge set of tracks so I can test run some narrow gauge equipment through here as I've got a narrow gauge account that I service and work for as this section walks on we come into another bridge this bridge is in fact the highway m bridge in pivley missouri it's actually a prototype bridge it's got a four lane road on it and what I liked about it was it had a multitude of construction techniques in it you've got trestle you've got girder of various sizes a creek and a highway it's got all five elements that I think make for an interesting scene the scene diverges off into a corner which I chose to just use to convolute the trains you know you don't necessarily watch the train go through here it goes into the corner comes back the other side is if it's a fresh new scene again then we end up with a freelance bridge section this is not prototype this is freelance using a brass plma bridge also the central valley plastic structure fits in the same spot so it's kind of a generic scene where over the years I've been switch out the bridges just to have the same scene look different I've been able to use this diorama for a lot of different ad photography and we've done live video on it for my what's neat this week segments and this section of course lifts up goes outside like the entire layout does for convenience of the photography to get the real light and backgrounds as you move along further I've got a small little holding yard which is more or less just an interesting place to spot cars the topography is all been carved out of the foam both tracks are laid directly on top of the foam and of course these segments are wrapped in oak and all the blocks are in these yard sections here on the front of the layout so that I can have access to the blocks everything self-contained no wires hang out at the bottom so when this section goes outside and gets photographed all the wires being self-contained in there make it very convenient where again nothing's dangling out the last scene on my layout is an old grain elevator that was in a town called Greenville Illinois and this is in fact the prototype structure that I started many years ago and I mirrored the structure I built it exactly backwards so that it would fit into the space that I had with the roads but it's just a very interesting looking grain elevator that finishes out another section of the layout with enough roads on it that I did a lot of Volvo photography photo shoots on this a few years back where I needed lots of roads the trains weren't important it was all about the vehicles the trains were more or less a background to the road shot so this section works out really well for road photography and videography of vehicles and things like that after the grain elevator module we work ourselves into the laundry area I keep the tracks very discreet on a double-track main line the second track on the main line runs down to a lower hidden staging yard which is yet to be completed but as you go through the laundry room it's very convenient very discreet there's no trains to bend over when you're trying to load the washer and the dryer and I've seen that on a lot of different layouts so I really like the way the cabinetry and the way the train runs through this functional area of the layout so I hope you've enjoyed this quick look at the design of my layout designed from experience designed for use and functionality let me tell you this really works well for me so if you're considering designing a layout consider laying your track directly on top of the foam having foam sit right on top of your tabletops so you can switch out your scenes change the element of your layout just easy as can be it's a great way to do it I suggest that anybody who wants to build a layout design something similar to this I hope you've enjoyed this thank you very much so I want to give an update to what you just saw my home layout video because as you know layouts change all the time there's no such thing as a permanent layout and my layout's the same way mine changes with my lifestyle so as we walk up on the river section here I want to show you the hide pulp mill now this ran on us on a segment of what's neat and I showed you how we built this entire scene and all these things that I described to you that I've been in what's neat videos previously I will give you an index called the WN index where you can look up all the what's neat shows and the subject matter in them including the hide pulp mill here which was a great video that we did that's in case you don't have Daniel around to ask him what video was this in Daniel and he always knew it actually says it right there on the WN index it says it right there in case you don't have Daniel around so as you see this layout has changed I added a lot of three rail to it over time and I added this area on a hill that went all the way up from the main line and this also was in a previous what's neat video now where I'm standing right now is where the Merrimack River diorama used to be that was 4 feet by almost 10 feet long I took that out because it didn't allow us to get to the back corners of the layout and we really didn't utilize those areas plus I wanted to open up some space down here because I actually needed more space as my workload increased I also took out my entire bluff section that used to be over on this side of the basement and the reason I did that was so that I could open up this work table I built an ather and switch yard on it for Chris Palomar is an ather and a few years back and I also use it for storage so it's just allowed me to open up against space and just do things a little bit different around here the bluff was very large it was about a scale 1200 feet long so it was like 12 or 14 feet long it was two feet high and it was almost eight feet deep and it just took too much valuable space in the basement so after about two years after I tore down everything in here I then started to build a narrow gauge layout I got Blackstone models as an account and I fell in love with HON3 I had all the Blackstone models I actually had a figure eight loop layout built here I had built a curved section that came off of the main line on the layout into the center of the room where I had a trestle lightener trestle was built in that section of the area and I also built a BTS log mill facility and a great big dog bone on the layout and that ran right up the center of the room it also was featured in a lot of previous what's neat videos because the construction was a lot of fun and it added a lot of operating to my layout which was a great element that I was missing on this layout because as you know it's just a race track that runs around the room because I model for the run by effect well what happened was I started this thing called a podcast and I needed to open up space in the basement to the point where the narrow gauge and all the layout up the center of the room was taking up so much space that during the prototype modelers meet in 2017 and 18 when we had a lot of guests here to do a show there wasn't any room for people to stand so I actually had to open up space for my professional life to keep promoting the hobby the way I do and I got all the narrow gauge stuff boxed it all up put it in a truck and sent it down the Joshua's house so Joshua's got all my beautiful uh self-standing dioramas that were here as I move along I can tell you that the area in front of the window that I showed previously in my what's neat video I actually had built a turntable scene and changed the track arrangements on that area made it just a little bit wider and then as time went by I also cut out that turntable and changed it the good thing about modeling a layout is that there's no such thing as rules you can change anything you want all the time no layouts ever completely finished but I did want to give you this update on what I've done a brief overview of everything that I've done down here on this layout it's a lot of fun best hobby in the world and with that I'm going to end this segment on Ken Patterson's home layout on what's neat all the products seen on this episode of what's neat are available from Lombard hobbies in Lombard Illinois or order online at Lombard hobby dot com author's trains supporting hobby retailers across the world since 1932 check out their website and learn more at wathers dot com american limited models available at your local hobby shop or online at american limited models dot com


leveland. Okay. I think he's home against Cleveland. I know it's Cleveland. I don't know if they're in Cleveland or in Miami. And Fields is home against Detroit. That's not for you to... I gotta go for the higher ceiling. Because... Well, the Bears could put up a lot of points, but they're going to give up a lot of points. I feel like the Dolphins should win. Right? I don't see Cleveland as like a team. You don't get into a shootout with Cleveland, do you? You don't, but I think Miami should be able to beat them though. But like the Lions team, they could go... That game could be a shootout together, you know? Yeah. I need the higher ceiling because I'm projected to lose pretty big. Really? No, I'm not talking about Jaspies. I'm only... Yeah, I'd probably go for Fields, to be honest. I think that one might be more of a shootout. His projection is lower, but I think... He should do better. There's no injuries on their offense, right? No. I'd probably go for Fields. Like you said, I don't know if you see Cleveland. Yeah, you just had such a monster week last week. Yeah. Nicholas, on your bench. Evan Bouchard.   All right, let me finish going through this one box and then I guess I'll rip the rest of them. Well, Deity. Pustamen? Pustamen? Troy Terry, UD Canvas. A little by-field. We got Madd's Salt Guard. UD Canvas, Madd Boldie. Young Guns, that's nice. And Marco Ralsi. Nice, a little Stuart Skinner. That's a acetate. Clear cut. Alex Vlasik. Jordan Cairo. All right, let me go through the boxes. I think Deity threw me off. I'm just going to rip two more boxes, guys, and then we can go through the last five boxes. The last box here to rip, and then we'll go through the five boxes. Interesting, now. All right, guys, here we go. LaFernier. Lucas Richaud. And that is the French Young Gun. Chase Pearson, Young Gun. Canvas Charlie Coil. I get to fill in Detroit's Got Tire right now. Linus Sandin. UD Canvas Young Guns, Ken Johnson. UD Canvas Andreas Johnson. Latiri. For the Penguins. Dazzlers Matthews. Trayfix Swalanski. Yorkstrand. Maddie. All right, 30 seconds left. Zack Hayes. That's over. Dazzlers Brock Nelson. And Frederick Carlstrom. No Cates. Andre Vasilevsky. Ladislav. Moritz Seder. Macelli. Jack Quinn. Evgeny Kuznetsov. Jacob Marksram. Thomas Bordeaux. Boracic. Blankenberg. Jonathan Kovacovic. Oliver Eggman Larson. Brayden Pasol. Lucas Richaud. Kochakov. Young Guns there for the Carolina Hurricanes.  And it is Jack of Gallivas. All right, two more boxes, guys. Here we go. Bobby Brink. UD Canvas Young Guns, Black and White. Valtieri. Pustinin. That's for the Penguins. Dylan Samberg. Patrick Kane. UD Canvas. Drake Batherson. Hayden Hawkson. Young Guns Canvas of Lucas Richaud. Jeremy Swamin. Jack McBean. Dazzlers. Alex Killerin. And Ben Myers. All right, so last stack right here. Then we got one more box. Kayden Korsak. Nels Hoglander. All right, one more box, guys. All right, so last box here, guys, and then we'll do the giveaway. Here we go. Jack of Parole. Kealuk Duvall. Mark Kastelik. UD Canvas Carter Rahagey. Nice Matt Boldy there. Melissa DeWall. Steve Birch. We got a Pitlick. Matt Solgar. Thatcher Demko. Nick Blinkenberg. Someone there for the Columbus Bluejack. It's Steve Birch. UD Canvas Kyle Conner. Samuel Fagmo. Canvas Abenajad. And there you go, folks. Boom. So, again, we got a lot of young guns, a lot of dupes, but, you know, Blankenberg bigger one, Boldy. Bernier's. There's a Boldy there. Bernier's. Boldy. And a lot more over here, of course, too. Just leave out the top load. All the canvases, all the young guns. Got six on average in 12 boxes. That's over 72 young guns. So, let's switch genes now, guys, and let's see who gets those two spots or gets the spots in the giveaway. So, remember, five winners. Top five, get $100. And again, I'll hit it just by two or more. So, Kev got two. That's an entry. Patrick Cox got 20. So, that's ten entries. Scott Q. Scott Wilcox just won. Steve Birch was six. So, that's three entries. And Zachary with two. That's an entry as well. Again, top five, get $100 each. Dice roll. Six out of four, ten times. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Boom. Six, four, ten. Patrick, Steve, Patrick, Patrick, and Zachary. So, there you go. Patrick, I'll send you one code of 300 and Steve Birch 100, Zachary 100. So, there you go. Top five. Get $100 each. So, I appreciate it, folks. JaspysCaseRace.com, guys, thanks. There was a little tiring right there, not many people watching, but we did it. All right. So, it looks like, guys, I got a couple orders, but it wasn't for anything that was super close. I think it's all select teams that we're selling to get it down to 23 and 28. So, I think that's going to be it for me then, guys. I'll turn off the labels, upload the video and all that, but I think I'm going to be calling it soon right now. Alrighty, folks. That's going to be it for me then. Thank you, guys, for a good Friday and Saturday, guys. Next Friday and Saturday. Remember, there's still two, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, nine World Cup promo breaks on the website or nine total World Cup promo spots available on the website. So, basically what we have filled up is up until, like, about here. Meaning that we'll only have to post about another eight more breaks or eight more breaks worth of spots. So, if you guys can, of course, we knocked out about seven, on average, the first two days. So, with Joe tomorrow, if you guys could knock out, let's say, an NT World Cup, NT Nat Collegiate, you know, maybe a Mosaic, you got one, two, three, maybe you could do four, five, then I think by the 20th we'll have this definitely filled up and we'll be able to dish out your guys' World Cup teams. So, I appreciate it, folks. Like I said, I'm done for the night. Joe's back tomorrow at 3 o'clock Pacific. See you guys on Wednesday if there's a new release.