This summer, we are featuring reflections from recent Eco Practicum alumni about the most moving things they experienced in the program. Maheteme Kebede is from Ethiopia and is currently finishing up his studies in the United States. Open, enthusiastic, and charismatic, Maheteme brought his infectious laugh and thoughtful critique to bare on the many topics we covered throughout the month. Describe an ah-ha moment you had during the practicum. What was the trigger, what did you learn, and how did it change what you had previously thought to be true?
My “ah-ha” moment came about when we went to visit Root ‘n’ Roost farm for the first time and were given a tour of the facilities. I was amazed by the design and by how much thought was put into every single aspect of the farm. From the animal and plant species they worked with, to the landscape, the water flow and all-round energy transfer around their property, everything was there to minimize waste and increase productivity of the land they have. I felt like a professor was giving me an amazing lecture about everything from Botany, Zoology, Architecture, Genetics and many more fields in science. It was after this tour that I seriously contemplated going into agriculture to learn as much as I can about working with the environment and ultimately, I want my career to focus on sustainability and renewable energy. I am definitely looking forward to going back to the area and working with one of the farms to get some valuable experience. Eco practicum allowed me to learn more about myself more than anything else. It changed how I view my environment as a whole. I am now a vegetarian who went from being unsettled by insects and arachnids to looking forward to studying just how invaluable they are. It was good to see just how much I like to learn about my environment first hand without the stressful and motivational factor of earning a grade from a teacher. Most of my educational career consisted of being in classrooms and having to listen to other people teach what they have read and learned about. Being able to get the practical experience from Eco Practicum showed me what I would want to do as a career and just how I would want to lead my life and interact with the environment we are all responsible for. I saw what my strengths and weaknesses are and I was motivated to actually work on improving. The motivation was not for a grade or a pat in the back but to better myself and make a better impact in my community. I was always under the impression that being very skilled in one field is the most plausible way to have a big impact in this world. From the people I met with Eco Practicum and the places we visited, I saw that being well rounded and willing to act has more of an impact in society than just trying to be the best at one thing and being sectioned off from the environment we live in. I will definitely strive to learn as much as possible about my environment as a whole and be driven to always serve my community. - Maheteme Kebede This summer, we are featuring reflections from recent Eco Practicum alumni about the most moving things they experienced in the program. Angelica Radke is one of our first participants to do both our Spring Break NYC and Summer Catskills programs. In this post, she talks about the new values we'll need to really make progress on major environmental issues. Describe an "ah-ha!" moment you had during the Practicum.
I want to help transform our culture. I want to help change what we put the most value on. Because today what drives us to want souped up cars, large homes, acres of weed-free lawn, beach front property and all the latest trends is completely unsustainable. What drives us is largely the pursuit of happiness. Therefore, I want help create a society where the individual’s level of happiness is not so relative to material, but relative to their own relationship with the Earth and community. What was the trigger? We went to the Delaware County of Public Works, where they sort the county’s single-streamed trash. Seeing the tons of trash made me realize that we need to redefine what waste means and what it looks like. There at the DCPW I thought about how it’s taken a lot of effort to get people to reuse and recycle, but it’s going to take so much more effort to get people, wealthier people in particular, to reduce their consumption. This is largely because of the satisfaction from shopping (but it doesn’t last long, right?). Later in the week, waste came up in a discussion on a video about trashing the planet with plastics and non-biodegradable things. At the Catskill Arts Society, I thought about the role education and art would have in a transformation like this. The venues and space they had was perfect for sparking some discussion and providing people with a new attitude or way of thinking. What did you learn? I learned that one of our greatest problems is that of overconsumption, causing us to “require” irrecoverable amounts of Earth’s precious finite resources. Our fate depends on the change of this trend, not solely in our ability to increase energy efficiency or use renewables. I also learned from my own experience there that putting your hands in the dirt and interacting with nature, as well as investing in communities, will help create a paradigm shift. Strong communities can help guide people to make wiser decisions and sacrifices, and sensing that we’re part of something larger will make us feel safer and happier. How did it change what you had previously thought to be true? I didn’t quite realize how critical a cultural transformation was in order to live sustainably until a culmination of events during the program. I also didn’t see how important a role community, education, and art would have in this transformation. Kids need to see the value in community and Earth’s resources, and see that there is no need for NEW and the most UP TO DATE version to be happy. I want people, especially future generations, to be happy knowing that they are living consciously, considerately, and allowing the environment to regenerate itself. I want to help work in that direction. With that I have an optimistic view of our future 100 and even 1,000 years from now. - Angelica Radke This summer, we are featuring reflections from recent Eco Practicum alumni about the most moving things they experienced in the program. Billy Dimas finished Session 1 of Eco Practicum Catskills deeply impacted by what he saw and learned about meat production. Describe an "ah-ha!" moment you had during the Practicum. What was the trigger, what did you learn, and how did it change what you had previously thought to be true?
My “ah-ha” moment occurred right when we began looking into large and small-scale meat production. Specifically, when we visited the large-scale slaughterhouse at Cargill Meat Solutions in Pennsylvannia and when we witnessed the lamb slaughter at Snowdance Farm in New York. Experiencing these things made me realize how our system truly works and how much there actually is in the world. When I got back to camp after visiting Cargill, I was conflicted by the fact that these are living creatures and we shouldn’t be eating them at all and the fact that we are part of nature and we are predators and this is what predators do. In either scenario, I in no way agreed with the way that we are killing these animals for mass production and I really began to see that we can never have a sustainable system if we do it this way; shipping animals extreme distances from all over the United States and Canada. Marc Jaffe, who owns Snowdance Farm, gave us a tour of the farm and showed us the conditions that the animals lived in. He also explained why the lamb was kept in a cage for an hour or two before the slaughter. He explained it as a gradual separation of the lamb from the other lambs makes it easier on the animals compared to having to chase it around for a little when it is time to slaughter it. While at the lamb slaughter, I thought that this was the way it needs to be done. He gave this animal life, cared for it, and comforted the animal as he took its life away. Then I realized, based on the things we built and the systems we created, that there is no way we can go back to the whole “you raise what you eat system,” or even a system where everyone has a farmer-to-consumer connection. There has to be a middle ground. All along the way, I kept going back to the thought that even though we have the most influence among all creatures on the planet, we do not run it. We have to learn to coexist with the rest. - William Dimas Eco Practicum Catskills just ended and we had a fantastic, and deeply moving experience. For the next few weeks, our blog will feature stories from alumni about the experiences that impacted them most. First up, Karina Almonte explains why the program moved her to pursue a career as a social worker in Sullivan County. Describe an "ah-ha!" moment you had during the Practicum.
My “ah –ha” moment was when I began seriously considering working in Sullivan County and the Catskills area as an option after graduation. I am hoping to return to the area to work as a caseworker, helping individuals and families to find and access services related to food, nutrition, health-care, housing, and energy needs. What was the trigger? The trigger for my realization came during the week we spent focusing on food, and issues of food access and food justice. That week we visited Sullivan County Federation for the Homeless, a not-for-profit that provides prepared meals and emergency food assistance. We visited the Office for Women, Infants & Children [WIC] at the Liberty Public Health Office, a federally funded program that helps low-income families with young children, through supplemental food assistance, nutrition counseling, and breastfeeding support. They are two very different organizations that share a common mission: to provide a food safety net to individuals and families. When it came time to start final projects we were prompted to think about how we would address certain issues in this region. I kept thinking, “how would we address food access in this area?” As I thought about my question one of our facilitators prompted us with the question; “how will we…” She was right, how will we…? And so my question became: How will we provide access to healthy food to those who have limited means? That was my trigger to want to return to the area to work. What did you learn? I learned just how much work goes into providing a safety net service to a vulnerable population. Reading about the work of human service organizations is one thing, but being able to meet with staff and talk about successes and failures, that is priceless. Meeting with the staff at these organizations was motivating. They are working hard, even in the face of setbacks, to serve the people in Sullivan County. I learned that I want to be a part of what they are doing. How did it change what you had previously thought to be true? This experience strengthened my support for those who work hard to provide assistance and advocacy to people in crisis. Our visits with staff proved what I knew to be true that their work is not easy but it is necessary, and it is work that I want to do. "I figured out what I really want to do with my life."
"In two weeks here I've learned more than in one full year of grad school." That's just a tiny bit of the incredibly positive feedback we got from participants in Eco Practicum Catskills 2015. It may hard to explain just how meaningful and intense this experience can be, so we made this photo album to take you along for the ride. Our goal is to build the environmental movement by investing in young leaders. And boy, did we succeed! We are so proud of all 16 participants and we're thrilled they're now Eco Practicum alumni. Over the next few weeks, we'll be featuring some of them on our blog, the Practical Idealist, so stay tuned! Here's a link to the full album on Facebook.
WJFF is a fantastic local hydro-powered radio station in the Sullivan County Catskills. For the second year running, Dick Riseling has interviewed us about why college students are making the choice to pursue careers in the environmental field, and how participating in Eco Practicum is impacting that choice.
Here's more on WJFF Radio. Listen in! Significant Concepts, Considered.The Buzz Words blog series explores concepts that are critical to the environmental movement, and to the world at large. This series does not offer definitions or proclamations. This is our chance to think about, and bring to light, some tricky and timely concepts. During the liberal euphoria that was the 2008 presidential election, I remember campaigning in the conservative leaning and contentious state of Pennsylvania where I saw lots of pro- and anti-Obama swag. One that stood out to me the most was a bumper sticker that read, “I’ll keep my GOD, Guns, Freedom & Money. You can keep your CHANGE!” I saw that and remember thinking, “Hey, wait a minute. The ‘change’ slogan isn’t just silly and vapid, it’s a concept that is at once so broad and undeniable, it means practically nothing at all.” Change is. What else can you say? People fear it and long for it. They bust ass to bring it about a different reality, and fight just as hard to prevent a new reality from taking root.
So what do we, as the frontline of the movement for ecological justice, think about change? Well, like everyone, we want some things to change and some things to be preserved. We want to change our reliance on fossil fuel. We want to preserve indigenous knowledge. We want to change the industrial food system. We want to preserve biodiversity. We want to change personal behavior and systems. We want to change the world, damn it, but just the bad parts! So what, exactly, is our theory of change? How do we think change – on that great big cultural societal level – happens? How can we plan our efforts so that we can be effective in bringing about the new civilization we want to see? The truth is, we do bring about some change, while some change happens to us. But which one’s which, how can we tell the difference, and how can we be strategic about our efforts unless we understand this difference? It seems to me that while there is no shortage of tactics employed by the environmental movement, there are no prevailing theories of change to lean on as we make our choices about what to eat, how to teach, where to build our cities, and how to build our movement to win. Don’t get me wrong – we certainly don’t need one dominant theory of change according to which we make all our decisions. In the end, the theory is just that – a theory. It’s an idea. A guess. A hypothesis based on observations and extrapolations. What we very much do need are a few good ideas … some competing principles upon which to build our strategies. Many existing theories of social change (evolutionary theory, cyclical theory, technological theory) sought to explain the present in terms of the past. Perhaps we can use elements from these theories, and / or create entirely new ones, to explore the past to formulate strategies for conscious futuring. Yes, the world is changing, as it always had and always will. And yes, there are some changes we can control and some we can’t. But, to borrow another one of Obama’s rather silly presidential campaign slogans (as well as a title of one of Newt Gingriches many books), if we want to “win the future” and influence the way that life on earth is lived, we’ve got to better understand how decisions are made, how people are compelled, and the drivers of personal and societal change. Onward. Eugenia Manwelyan Significant Concepts, ConsideredThe Buzz Words blog series explores concepts that are critical to the environmental movement, and to the world at large. This series does not offer definitions or proclamations. This is our chance to think about, and bring to light, some tricky and timely concepts. Just the other day I saw this great interview with Macolm X's daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz. She was asked about an op-ed piece she published in the New York Times where she weighs in on what Malcolm would have said about today's Black Lives Matter movement. "He’d agree that 'Black Lives Matter,' indeed," she writes, "but also note that the uniformed police officers who disagree are not likely to be persuaded by a hashtag."
That's a pretty harsh critique for a movement that has gained significant traction over the past year and offered an inspiring and positive outlet for the rage people feel in response to the terrible realities of racial violence. But it makes sense for Malcolm, who famously argued that freedom and justice ought to be pursued "by any means necessary." He was, his daughter admits, a "results-oriented person." In the environmental movement today, are we results-oriented people? I think the answer to that is a nuanced "sometimes." When it comes to things like fossil fuel divestment, transition to renewables, establishing local farmers markets, or carving out space for community gardens, the environmental movement has made significant headway in the last decade and continues to set ambitious yet achievable goals. However, knowing what we know about the connections between racial and environmental justice, about the environmental costs of producing renewable energy, about the challenges looming with continued population growth, about the trouble with an economic system stable only in growth... do we have any reasonable goals for addressing those things? In other words, as environmentalists, as we aim to achieve our near-term goals, do we know that these are helping us play our long game? What's our long game, again? Let us not be mistaken: we fight for nothing less than the long-term survival and just flourishing of human life on earth, knowing that this can only be achieved by cherishing and strengthening the deep interconnectedness among humans and between us and all other species on this little planet. That's a goal I'm willing to fight for, but boy, it's hard to know where to start. Sometimes it feels that the near-term goals we're obsessing over on a daily basis are separating us into competing camps and preventing us from developing an overarching consensus vision. So while we might think we're being impactful, are we actually taking one step forward individually and two steps back as a movement? Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925 - 90 years ago this week. What made Malcolm such a powerful leader was that he saw the bigger picture and knew how to clearly define his goals. To honor him, let's take the occasion of his birthday to celebrate how far we've come, and think deeply about how our next steps will bring us bravely into the future. - Tal Beery Environmental Concepts, ConsideredThe Buzz Words blog series explores concepts that are critical to the environmental movement, and to the world at large. This series does not offer definitions or proclamations. This is our chance to think about, and bring to light, some tricky and timely concepts. We may not have the answers, but we're here to ask the questions, and to offer our thoughts. Climate justice. Food justice. Environmental justice. In the age of increasing income inequality, growing prison populations, and #blacklivesmatter – where does the environmental movement stand on this profound and tricky issue? Well … it’s complicated. Justice is a firmly human concept, and it’s almost entirely based on subjective experience. Remember the last great nature video you watched? Remember when that beautiful cheetah, mother of 3 cubs, was sprinting her heart out to catch a baby caribou to sustain her and her babies? And that caribou family who’s newborn calf had just set foot on his wobbly legs? Who are you rooting for? What’s justice in this scenario? What is a just outcome? I suppose that if we had to stretch the concept to apply, justice could only be understood on a systems level – such that justice is the balance that both species experience in the opportunity to hunt, and run. But what about natural disasters? What about the earthquake that devastated Nepal? How could the concept of fairness and justice apply? And zooming still further out, how do we understand the 6th extinction as “man-made” and deplorable, when the five extinctions that preceded it were simply acts of god / time / geology / scientific forces / random events? Is this current extinction spree wrong because we’re the culprits? And our violence is distinct from the violence of nature? What is it about justice that’s so particular to us human animals? There is, of course, no universal justice. A horrible act of violence and terrorism for one is an act of the utmost justice and right for another. Injustice, inequity, unfairness for some is quite alright for others. So how do we navigate the murky waters of justice and use it as a tool for good, without oversimplifying and falling back on familiar slogans and dominant myths? The environmental movement, with its ideology rooted in both worlds – the world of people and the world of nature - can offer some important insights into the fuzzy realm of justice. Certainly, it’s not fair that some people take on the environmental burdens of our industry and economy – and of course these “some people” are often poor people of color. When people demand justice, as they demanded in the antebellum south, as they demand today in Baltimore, and tomorrow in your back yard, they are proclaiming their right to a great many number of things – most generally, the freedom for self-determination. The freedom from violence, unjustified and systematic; the freedom from imprisonment of the body and mind; the freedom to live and let live. And therein lies the key to understanding environmental justice. At the end of the day, justice is about Freedom and Oppression. A single act of violence, conservation, generosity, or dissent can only be understood through the lens of justice if it creates or restricts space for freedom in the world. It’s not whether or not the cheetah kills the caribou that determines justice, it’s that the cheetah gets to hunt at all, that both animals have a chance at survival, and that both species have the opportunity to thrive. Justice is about securing access and opportunity to the means for surviving and thriving for all species. There's no guarantee that a drought wont come and damage our material reality, but it's the knowledge, skills, and personal connections that all living things rely on for survival that are our most powerful tools for justice. The environmental movement, and any movement for that matter, must commit itself to freedom, liberation, and profound agency if it is to proclaim its allegiance to justice. - Eugenia Manwelyan 5 Questions for Liz SarnoLiz Sarno is a recent graduate from American University with a degree in environmental science and minor in Chinese language. She lives in Arlington, Virginia where she works at a consulting firm that works directly with the federal government. After going abroad to Beijing in undergrad, Liz developed a love for traveling and trying new things. She also spent a month doing trail and campsite restoration in the Rocky Mountains, which developed her love for camping, backpacking and Colorado. As an environmentalist, Liz has a real appreciation for spending time outdoors, health and fitness, and locally grown food. What work do you do and what lessons from Eco Practicum do you apply at your job?
As a consultant, I help solve problems for the Federal government. Eco Practicum helped me develop my communications skills with my peers-a trait very useful in a large consulting firm. Additionally, Eco Practicum developed my passion for agriculture and experimental, hands-on learning. This drew me to work for a firm that has a large presence at the USDA, as well as get involved in initiatives that are student and youth led. What are the most fulfilling and most challenging parts of what you do? The most fulfilling part of this job is knowing that your work directly affects people living in this country. The most challenging parts would have to be time management and meeting the client’s, the firm’s and your own expectations. Describe a moment or situation that helped you realize your passion? Honestly, participating in Eco Practicum really developed my passion and knowledge about the agricultural crisis in this country. It was a great way to supplement my education outside of the classroom. Additionally, the Rocky Mountain class I took really developed my passion for Public Lands Management. What advice do you have for people looking for meaningful work? Think about what kind of work makes you happy and try to identify what job will enable you to do that. You can also get involved in activities outside of work that will feed your passions-be creative! And there’s no harm in trying something, not liking it and switching jobs. It happens to the best of us. What’s one thing you think everyone should know how to do? Everyone one should know how to stop a running toilet. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve struggled with this—youtube and wikihow are life savers! |
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