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2006-2008 ES CommunityThe second and larger cohort of the Earth Sustainability series began in fall of 2006. This second ES series was taught by an interdisciplinary core faculty: Barbara Bekken (GEOS), Brinkley Benson (HORT), Lori Blanc (BIOL), David Dillard (ESM), Sue Hagen (MATH), Joan Marie (STS), Cortney Martin (ISE), Margaret Merrill (LIBR), Richard Rich (PSCI), and Gyorgyi Voros (ENGL). This cohort also enrolled in dedicated sections of Communication Skills 1015 and 1016, taught by Dale Jenkins (COMM). These students completed the program in spring, 2008 and earned Curriculum for Liberal Education credit for all areas except Quantitative and Symbolic Reasoning (area 5). These students also participated in a research study assessing the educational benefits of this holistic approach to core education. To learn more about the student view of the program, read an open letter from Danielle Wroblewski to the ES Class of 2008-2010, or see our multimedia page with videos and slide shows!.
I have always loved ES, but this semester has by far exceeded every expectation. I always thought this semester was going to be my least favorite. Thinking about waste is something that I knew was a necessity, but never something that I was eager to learn about. Tuesday lectures and Thursday discussions are my two favorite days of the week. Perhaps I love this semester because it relates directly to my own health, but I also have such a strong intellectual curiosity to learn more about the issues that we are learning about. Endocrine disruptors, malaria, lead, and carcinogens are now what I google at night, replacing my usual facebook checking routine. I've formed a new way of thinking too while looking at such morbid topics like cancer rates. Our short-sided, "quick fix" thinking pattern that we have traced throughout all three semesters is now glaringly obvious in our public policy. For example, if thirty percent of all cancer, is said to be due to smoking, but what is smoking due to? The poor smoke more than the rich, and the high-school dropouts are much more likely to smoke than high school seniors. Why not say that poverty or faulty education is the primary cause of lung cancer? Why not say cancer is caused by cigarette advertising, tobacco subsidizing, or youthful illusions of immortality? This is exactly what I love about ES- we discuss issues while thinking more broadly and with an improved perspective on the world. What am I going to do without ES in my life next year??
Throughout this semester in Earth Sustainability, I have been able to make an assortment of connections. I feel like many students in college are trapped in this sphere of social psychology preventing them from making connections between classes and their own lives on any level. With a program like Earth Sustainability, I think we are all being slowly reprogrammed to make these connections and be glad that we are doing it. I really enjoyed the poetry workshop. I love any activity where I can be creative. I feel that in college there are not many opportunities to think outside the box and use my right brain. The exercises show that there is more to school than objective information. A lot of things in life are subjective, interpretable, and changing.
I have learned to place meanings behind these everyday [foods] that extend beyond their physical values. These meanings often include the social, political, and especially environmental impacts that these objects may have in the world. I have been so used to the mundane task of basically eating and regurgitating information for every class that I can honestly say that I was at first dismissive when it came to this [journal] project. Once I finally sat myself down… I found it to be something one rarely ever experiences in a college course: a chance to channel my creative energies. It no longer was an assignment in my mind, but something I could have fun with all the while reflecting on ideas and materials that we had covered in class.
Many of the projects we were assigned this semester required that we never accept anything as it is. An early project was the annotated bibliography. I was only a few minutes into the project when I realized how unreliable and impractical some of my sources were…I acquired an understanding that even seemingly trustworthy information could be laced with bias and half-truths. I have taken this into consideration for my daily life, always asking myself what an individual or corporation’s motivations may be.
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UCCS Director |
UCCS Coordinator |
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