Walking the Walk

Growing up in Vermont, I developed a strong sense of place in the natural environment. I continually find inspiration, creativity, and stress-relief from the beauty of my environment and my home. I began my studies at the University of Vermont as an undeclared major in the Rubenstein School for Environment and Natural Resources. I switched into Environmental Science and ultimately into Integrated Natural Resources. My concentration is community-based natural resource management, as I could never choose just social science or just hard science. I believe a successful environmental steward must understand the cultural, political, and economic aspects of the environment, as well as the bio-geochemistry science.  

My self-designed concentration allowed me to study abroad last year for 10 months at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel. I studied desert ecology and performed field work in the sand dunes. In addition to ecology, I learned about water management in the Middle East, sustainable agriculture, environmental ethics, environmental anthropology, and environmental policy. At the Arava Institute I learned about the environment as a tool for peace-building. We used our shared interest in the environment as a stepping stone to talk politics, at one of the only places in the world where Palestinians and Israelis come together to learn. My time in Israel taught me that natural resource management is a powerful tool that can tear communities apart or that can bring solidarity to people in conflict.

Ecosystem ecology is a very important class for me because I am finally walking the walk when it comes to interdisciplinary studies. It will be one of my first advanced science classes, and although I am a few pre-requisites short, I accept the challenge. I have studied basic ecology, desert ecology, and wetlands ecology. Each ecology course was interesting and made me consider becoming an ecologist. I am looking forward to ecosystem ecology because it seems like it will be a culmination of all my ecological studies. It dives deeper into the science of how it all works and it begins to ask the question of what is our impact as humans on the ecosystem? Coming from a focus in community-based natural resource management, I hope to find questions of sustainability easier to understand after ecosystem ecology. Through working with models in Dinamica-EGO, I hope to learn how to evaluate the success of environmental policies and sustainability initiatives. This class is an opportunity for me to learn more technical skills and expand on my scientific knowledge. I am looking forward to the semester and all it has to offer.

Check out this video on beauty in nature narrated by Richard Feynman