Tool Kit for Change - Beyond HSU

My work at Humboldt State has focused on community gardens, youth engagement, and building positive relations through hands-on approaches. Those have been at the forefront of my essays, my research papers, and my presentations in most, if not all of my classes. I would often dream of one day working or starting a nonprofit organization that focused on just that.

About a week ago, I received a call and an opportunity to pursue that dream over the summer.

Earlier this semester I applied to an internship program in Salem, Oregon that works with youth in a farming program. These high school students have spent the spring season growing their own food - which they will sell during the summer. Shortly after walking at the spring graduation ceremony, I will head north to serve as the Environmental Education Intern with the Marion-Polk Food Share Youth Farm. I will have the opportunity to work directly with young people by leading presentations on food security, environmental justice, and sustainable agriculture all while helping them establish their own business at the Salem Farmers’ Market.

This reminded me about the jobs and careers that we say we want to create. It also reminded me that there are already amazing programs addressing the issues we’re talking about in our classrooms. They might not be a common, but they’re out there. And when we see a need for one of them - it’s important to remember that we can start programs like these using the skills we’ve picked up in our program. We are leaving HSU with a toolkit to build or build on what is already out there.

I’m excited about my experience in their program. I’m also equally excited to apply the training that I have developed through my classes, professors, and fellow classmates.

Teaching to be Engaged Citizens

I was just offered an internship of a lifetime in which I'll travel to, live in, and work in Salem, Oregon at a Youth Farm led by a local food share. At this Youth Farm, young people are taught about food justice issues through garden-based, hands-on, experiential learning. Because they work directly with the food share, they are given the opportunity to really view cause and effect in action - they grow food, a customer at the food share obtains it, hunger is mitigated, and the cycle persists. 

This internship opportunity is really putting all I've learned in the Environmental Studies program to the test. The Youth Farm directly tackles pressing issues through directly engaging diverse youth and putting them in the forefront of positive social change. 

In questioning the current food system, the Youth Farm assesses the status quo and cultivates new approaches to how we obtain our food. Because the current food system isn't working, the Youth Farm diverged out of that structure to create a new system. Eventually, an appropriate and sustainable solution was created in the form of a youth farm that encourages youth to become active, engaged citizens in their communities, thus helping to mitigate future environmental issues.

The Youth Farm's processes in and of itself aid in the longevity of transdisciplinary thought.

Creating Careers (That May Not Exist, Yet)

This week, I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with two distinguished HSU graduates. They were in town, on campus, and spoke in one of my classes. (PSCI 364 - Technology and Development, if you’re wondering.) They are both environmental engineers - involved in international development programs around the world and they’re doing great things. However, it wasn’t just the work that they talked about that stood out. It was what they said about students in the humanities. About students in social science who could communicate with a diversity of different people from a variety of backgrounds.

I’ve often talked with fellow classmates about careers and post HSU work and how it might relate to our major. About how we can apply the skills we’ve developed in the program into positions with organizations near and far. It’s daunting. But they are questions we have to consider. (Being seniors, and all.)

My  conversation with the two graduates had one important “take home” piece. They talked about the skills they look for when bringing on new staff. The want “integrators,” or people that can communicate ideas well with others. People who can establish trust and who can create connections with communities when establishing national and international projects.

I found that enlightening - to hear it come directly from people immersed in humanitarian efforts around the world only added to the hope I have. Sarah once said that our jobs don’t even exist yet. That we have to go out there and create them. And that’s absolutely true. We’re critically analyzing the world around us. The skills we have - are needed in a world where disciplines are collaborating on complicated issues. We can serve as a bridge between disciplines that help bring people together. Or we can be the voice that challenges a status quo that is unjust. All we need to do is create those jobs.

Let’s be deliberate about that creation - while not becoming overwhelmed by careers that don’t yet exist.

Teaching to be Hybrid Practitioners

Through my undergraduate career, I have written various papers having to do with Urban Agroforestry, Urban Sprawl, Green Roofs, Green Mentoring, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, to name a few.

Recently, I had an epiphany and realized all of the papers I've written as an undergraduate inherently critically analyze why such a disparity exists between environmental science and environmental justice. I realized I was unconsciously focusing on "fixing" some form of environmental science something by adding an environmental justice component by asking if anyone had considered how a given technology alleviates or agitates human social needs. In writing these papers on an individual level, I hadn't even considered that a passion for environmental justice lied within me.

Gomez's "Four Directions for the Humanities" suggests one solution for negative framing is moving toward transdisciplinarity in the humanities wherein collaboration between academic scholars and other publics can reflect their roles as hybrid practitioners. In writing these papers on an individual level, I hadn't even considered that I was moving toward transdisciplinarity. By writing articles as a scholar, but being involved in the campus community, I was reflecting my role as a hybrid practitioner.

My role as a hybrid practitioner has only just begun, however. This field must continue developing interdisciplinary inquiry into environmental questions and assumptions. Even more, the field must challenge already established questions and assumptions.

Environmental Humanities provides a holistic perspective that is so necessary in solving each an every one of the world's ailments. Without the environmental humanities, we fail to tie ourselves into the context of the intersection of the planet in which we live. Environmental Humanities is essentially an avenue in which we can have our cake, and eat it, too.

Humanities: The Last Key to the Puzzle

For years and years global powers have been trying to solve our overwhelming environmental problems with just science, policy , and economics. This however has turned out not to be the ultimate equation for environmental problem solving. They were missing a key component, the humanities. This was shown after the failure of the Rio Conference in 1992. This conference focused on furthering ecological modernization to move into an era of sustainability. Unfortunately this doesn't solve all our issues and after this was confirmed the search for the sustainable answer resumed.

All signs point to environmental humanities as our way to tackle these overarching issues. Environmental Studies as a discipline uses knowledge from all over the academic spectrum to solve problems. Without unification, these areas of studies are ignorant to other ways of looking at the issues and are blind to what may help. Humanities mainly have been out of this picture. Environmental studies in a lot of ways focuses on this overlooked discipline and fits it in as that last piece of the puzzle. As more humanity thinkers start to take the reign of environmental policy and science planning, all things point to a brighter future. 

Gomez, Sergio. "Why Should Biologists Interested in the Environment Take the Humanities Seriously?" Yale Environmental Humanities Initiative. N.p., 18 Aug. 2015. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

Reminder to Myself

I recently read an article about a local activist named Betty Chinn. Have you heard about her? No? (I highly recommend this brief write-up about the transformational work she is doing in Humboldt County - right here.) She’s an advocate for the homeless population in Eureka and spends countless hours working to help people around her. From getting up at 2:00 a.m. to help transport homeless youth to school to helping make sure others have a meal to eat throughout the day - she seems to be at it nonstop, all while trying to raise funds to continue offering services and resources.

The work she’s involved in reminded me so much about Mark Manson’s article You probably know to ask yourself, “What do I want? Here’s a way better question. The years of struggle she endured (and endures) are what make her who she is and makes her work all the more powerful. She lives it. She is actively out there working for change and it’s not easy.  And it’s true, “What determines your success isn’t ‘What do you want to enjoy?’” No, it’s more than that. Manson points out that it’s not the end result that we should focus on when considering our goals. It’s the process and the sacrifice that comes along with reaching that goal “ The question of “What pain do you want to sustain?” is at the root of it all. It’s what we should consider when we start on a life long path.

This semester has been an uphill struggle. I’m sure you (yes, you) can agree with me on this. Being a full-time student, with a full-time job, and another part-time job on top of that is a balancing act. (All while trying to have a social life.Yikes) It’s a struggle. But it’s a struggle that I love. Sure I might not always get a full night's rest, and I constantly find myself rushing from one meeting to the next - but it’s the end goal of where I’m headed that keeps me going. It’s what gets me out of bed in the morning. If I wasn’t engulfed in the daily struggles that expose me to new challenges then I wouldn’t be working for change. I would be stuck and content with the way things are.

So here’s a reminder to myself - your choices today should be a reflection of the person you want to be. Don't ever forget that.

Sincerely,

“My Former Self”

Aim For the Stars

It's only been a few weeks after reading Mark Manson's "Ask The Hard Questions" and I can already feel the words in his blog impacting my everyday life. The premise of article is to make people rethink the way that they go about challenges and hardships. He implores you to ask yourself not what you want but rather what are you willing to sacrifice for that want. This is because you will never achieve hopes and dreams without assessing the struggles that goes along with it. In other words you have to want the struggle if you truly want your goal. 

In my own life this question of if I really wanted the struggle had been lingering in my mind. Am I willing to put in the hard work for my goals in health, relationships, and schoolwork? The answer is yes. Now however I'm focused on the means other than the ends. When it came to my health, I started appreciating my opportunities to workout and eat healthy. Which I can testify is not easy, but it was something that I decided for myself. When it came to my schoolwork, I came to the conclusion that the hard work is worth the grade and you need to put in the long nights at the library if you want that A. You can't just turn in mediocre work and expect your professor to give you something to be proud of. Otherwise that wouldn't be fair to everyone. When it is clear someone tried harder than someone else on an assignment they should be rewarded with a better grade and 9 out of 10 times that person understands the curriculum more. You've got to put in the effort for the knowledge.

In conclusion I feel like my brain has been rewired because I read this. Only looking towards goals isn't a bad thing, it just undermines the trials and tribulations of getting there. Being aware of how you're going to get there is the take home message. Aim for the stars, but don't forget you have to build the rocket ship, train the astronauts, and educate the ground control.

Prison Ecology Project as a New Direction for the Environmental Humanities

As many of you in ENST 490 know, I am part of the Prison Ecology Project, which looks at the intersection of mass incarceration and environmental degradation. I work as a research assistant, but my primary duties are conducting archival research and developing a story map of the project. The project is definitely in the beginning stages, but the team has some goals for the project that follow some of what Gomez’s deems directions for the environmental humanities. 

One of the directions Gomez’s talks about is transdisciplinary and postdisciplinarity. Innovative and appropriate methods, approaches, theories and dialogues are necessary to achieve transdisciplinary and postdiscplinarity, and the environmental humanities should be a laboratory to develop these innovations, according to Gomez. I would argue that the Prison Ecology Project is working towards this as it is using different bodies of knowledge to work towards policy and social change of the expanding prison industrial complex. It combines the prison abolition movement with the environmental justice movement and makes connections in the fields of political science, criminology, sociology, GIS, cartography, communications, and the environmental humanities. We are working with people of all different backgrounds, from incarcerated individuals, radical environmentalists, academics, and students, which aligns with transdisciplinary as it, “involves increasing collaboration between academic scholars and other publics” (Gomez). We are incorporating visual arts, though my role as a cartographer, to communicate a global environmental and human rights issue, and are bringing to question that there may not be a difference between the two. 

The other direction that we are incorporating into the project is developing “citizen humanities.” This concept emphasizes the importance of not only working across scholarly disciplines, but working from academia to other spheres of public engagement. When the Prison Ecology Project presented at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) in March 2016, we opened up our project to the audience and the public, asking for participation in data collection and public records requests. Through this we are able to not only gather more data on the pollution in prisons, but also have thousands of people who live in communities near a prison participate in a global movement and feel a sense of liberation. Currently, this is a goal of the project but the foundation is there. As a part of this project, I hope to liberate communities through the use of GIS and cartography. 

Through my four years as an Environmental Studies major, I have come to find a passion in social justice GIS or counter/ critical cartography. The Prison Ecology Project has fallen into my lap, and I am very lucky to be involved with such wonderful people and work for such a powerful movement. Reading this article made my work and the project feel even more validated. I hope to incorporate all four of Gomez’s directions into further work. This is exciting but also daunting, as I am sure is a feeling many of us ENST seniors feel. Here we go.