BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Thaden School students attended and joined the conversation at the Urban Land Institute of Northwest Arkansas' Place Summit on Nov. 20.
The event focused on "preserving and bettering the spaces and places of our region." According to their website, their theme Regional Connectivity: Distinct Communities, A Shared Future, aims to "foster crucial conversations about preserving our beloved sense of place amid rapid growth in our region and neighboring communities."
"As we continue to see the rapid growth of Northwest Arkansas and things being built even quicker and faster to meet the need, we need to be intentional about how that development is happening," said ULI NWA's Megan Brown. "Be real about the infrastructure needs that are surrounding those, those growth moments, the design elements and the quality of life for the citizens that are here now and that are continuing to move here."
Alison Sant is the Co-Founder of the Studio for Urban Projects. She presented this year's keynote speech discussing climate change and other dangers to urban life, and how U.S cities adapt to those issues with solutions like multimodal transportation.
"We're kind of here to one, we're writing a concept paper and interviewing different people. But two, we want to meet and see people in our community and see what the ideas that we can expand upon and collaborate and build with," Sant said.
With Thaden students in the audience, Sant expressed how important it was for young minds to participate. Bella Fish was one of those students that attended this year's summit.
Fish attended as part of her Urban Studies class. Her teacher Sam Slaton has previously helped students jump through legal loops and study projects in an effort to make a dangerous intersection near school safer. Slaton said cities should proactively involve young students in future plans.
"I think that's something that we often forget, that our elected representatives work for us and so that's a really empowering sentiment for young people, because it reminds them that they are not as marginalized as perhaps they have been led to believe that they have the power to make a real impact on their community," Slaton said.
"It's incredibly exciting to see that generation care about it, but it's also important for us to realize that what the decisions we're making now affect those next the next generation, and those students, and even though they sometimes don't have a say from a voting perspective, or, you know, building things themselves, they are the ones that are going to be left with what gets built," Brown said.
As an avid cyclist, Bella is focus on growing Norhtwest Arkansas' bike-oriented communities. She invites other young minds to chime in with their ideas as well.
"I would say that the initiative is super key, and that it doesn't really matter. You can do it, and just have to put your mind to it," Fish said.
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