The Penn State Brandywine Vairo Library and Sustainovation Team came together to host a special event for students, staff and faculty across campus involving writing postcards for advocacy and education. With two prior campus-wide postcard writing events to show support for the EPA and the Gun Violence Research Act, we found that students are expressing an interest in having additional opportunities to write postcards. Instead of having students wait for us to hold an event, we wanted to make sure students knew where to find materials and resources so they could engage on their own.

We held two sessions on campus to help students with the overall postcard writing process and how to find the contact information for their U.S. and State Congresspeople. Faculty librarian Annie Jansen created a LibGuide for Elections and Adovcacy that will serve as an ongoing reference for students.

At the sessions, we encouraged students to write postcards to support the women of NASA – specifically, the Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act. We also shared a new program we are doing with Media Elementary School, helping their first grade students learn about geography and culture from postcards we send them during our travels locally-to-globally.

We look forward to engaging our students more with postcards and advocacy!