Fall and Spring Barbecue
Twice a year the club host a barbecue with our members. These are very fun events where we, as a club, bond and play numerous lawn games. In addition, we always launch a weather balloon at these to get readings around the area. Each of these cookouts have a specific purpose as well. The Fall BBQ is where we welcome all our new first year students to both our major and our club. This is where they meet many upperclassmen and start relationships with other members. It often is the first weather balloon launch the first year students conduct as well. We use our Spring BBQ to say goodbye to our seniors. This is often their last event with the whole club before they graduate, and it is always a great time!
Community Service
Throughout the year, our club partners with local organizations to give back to the community. One of the organizations we frequently work with is a nonprofit known as Helping Other People Everyday (H.O.P.E.) in Lyndonville, VT. Community service events our members have participated in include H.O.P.E.’s annual coat and can drives, painting signs to be placed throughout the community, and helping to move donated clothing to a trailer for the Salvation Army. In October 2020, we helped to move close to 2,000 bags of donated clothes. In April 2021, we were presented the NVU – Lyndon Club Community Service Award for our commitment to helping the community even with the challenges surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hike
Each year, we like to take club members and students on a hike. For the past few years, we have been hiking Mt. Pisgah, a mountain in Westmore, Vermont with an elevation of ~2,000 feet that overlooks Lake Willoughby. This activity is done early on in the year, while the weather is still nice. This presents a nice opportunity to acclimate new students and club members to each other, while also hiking almost four miles and viewing one of our most iconic Vermont lakes. In previous years, we have also hiked Burke and Mt. Washington.
Out of the Darkness Suicide Prevention Walk
In September, our club participates in the Out of the Darkness Suicide Prevention Walk held by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in Newport, VT. This walk is held to acknowledge suicide and mental health conditions for those who have been affected and those whose loved ones have been affected. Our club comes together every year to raise money, spread awareness, and support those who have been impacted by suicide or mental illness.
Car Wash
During the fall, our club coordinates with the Lyndonville Redemption Center in order to run our annual car wash. Members create signs, wash cars, and have an enjoyable afternoon raising money for the club. Students who participate in the carwash, whether creating signs or washing cars, can earn events towards being an active member.
SKYWARN Training
Every year we partner with the National Weather Service (NWS) in Burlington, Vermont to provide SKYWARN training to our members. NWS employees comes to our campus and educate us on a wide range of topics. This covers flooding, tornadoes, hail and other weather phenomena. This training is designed to not only educate members on these topics but to also teach us how to measure and observe these events. Then using this training, we can report to our local NWS if we observe any severe weather. This gives that office information they may not be able to see or confirm on their radar. This is particularly useful here in Vermont where mountains obscure radar visibility at lower elevations. We enjoyed this event and hope to continue working with our local NWS office to provide training and insight into the atmospheric sciences field for our members.
First Inch Contest
Every fall our club runs a two week long event known as the First Inch Contest where students, faculty, and staff place guesses on when the first inch of snow will fall for the coming winter. For 1 guess we as for $1 and for 5 guesses we ask for $3. There is no limit as to how many guesses one can make. Students who runs the contest receive events towards becoming an active member. After the two weeks, all the money is collected and we wait for mother nature to give us our first sign of winter. Once we do receive the first inch of snow, our club tallies up the donations and the person who guessed the correct date or closest to, receives half of the donations. The other half of the proceeds goes to disaster relief.
Sector Search
This event is designed specifically for first- and second-year students. During this event, the AMS club sponsors a trip to different sectors in the field. Past trips have included visits to graduate schools, National Weather Service offices, television news stations, and private industry companies. This event provides students with the opportunity to learn about different career paths and narrow down their degree program concentrations.
Internship Night
Internship Night is an event designed to showcase the internships or research that our students completed during the summer. During this event, students will present the research they completed and/or the experience that they had. This is a great event for students who are looking to do an internship in the future.
Talent Show
The Talent Show is an event put on by our AMS Chapter in conjunction with Lyndon’s MEISA Club (Music and Entertainment Industry Student Association). For this event, we encourage students to showcase their talents in our theater. This event occurs towards the end of our fall semester. We host auditions and a dress rehearsal, with tickets being on sale for one week before the show. All ticket sales go to benefit MEISA and our AMS Chapter, making this a fun way to get people together, showcase talents, and fundraise for two Lyndon Clubs!
Northeast Kingdom Regional Science Fair
During the spring, our club hosts the Northeast Kingdom Regional Science Fair on the VTSU-Lyndon campus. For this event, students in grades 3 – 12 are invited to creatively, scientifically, and originally create a science fair project to be displayed to win a prize and learn more about science. Additionally, attendees have the opportunity to participate in workshops given by our members. Workshops include presentations and activities based on Weather Ready Nation and climate change with tours of our on-campus news studio, News7.
School Visits
To build our club member’s communication skills and to give back to our community, we conduct outreach to pre-college students. Our outreach efforts work to engage K-12 students in educational meteorology and climatology material. We do this through a variety of means including school visits. We outreach to local elementary, middle, and high schools and pre-college AMS chapters which provides our club members the opportunity to engage with the public in a professional manner while also educating young students. Our club strives to teach students of all levels about atmospheric sciences, global climate change, careers in STEM, and the applications of science in their everyday lives.
Northeastern Storm Conference (NESC)
The Northeastern Storm Conference (NESC) has been occurring for almost 50 years. Recently moved from Saratoga Springs, New York to Burlington, Vermont, NESC continues to be the largest and longest lasting student-run conference of its kind. Our conference gives students and professionals the opportunity to share new research in the field including work done in academia, broadcast, private sector, and government. NESC also hosts three diverse keynote speakers from all realms of the field and a variety of professional development workshops for all attendees. They include, but are not limited to, resume, mental health in the workplace, and demo reel critique workshops. Hosting around 300 attendees every year, NESC provides a great opportunity to meet students looking for jobs, or for students to meet potential future employers.
Peer Nets
At the beginning of each academic year we pair an upperclassman with an incoming first year student within our department based on shared interests. These peer net pairs meet together on the third Thursday of every month to ensure first year students are acclimating to college life smoothly, and to participate in fun activities that promote interaction with fellow students. These events are crucial for making new students feel like a welcomed part of the VTSU-Lyndon AMS/NWA family.
Alumni Speakers
Throughout the academic year typically on the first Thursday of every month we have an VTSU-Lyndon alumni speak to our club. The alumni join us to present and share their experience in the meteorological field, allowing students to see different career paths. Students often engage with our speakers asking questions to learn more about how to navigate our field. Alumni speakers events provide a great opportunity for current students to form connections with alumni that may be able to help students find internships and even job opportunities post graduation.
