Looking Back and Looking Forward

When I was at the beginning of my environmental studies major, I took ENVST 2100-- an intro course taught by Ian Peisner. The course covered a broad array of environmental studies content-- a smorgasbord of what our future as ENVST students held, with many guest speakers providing the diversity of subject. Adrianne Cachelin shared her knowledge on environmental justice and injustice. Amy Wildermuth shared her passion for environmental law. Stephen Goldsmith (that's you, unless this is Mitch reading, then that isn't you...) shared his insights on urban ecology. Something mentioned in Professor Goldsmith's guest lecture has stuck with me ever since-- the importance of presenting yourself as valuable. If I remember correctly, he discussed how in effort to gain funding for artists, the initial attempts were something along the lines of "we need help, please fund us." After failed attempts with this route, an alternate strategy was employed-- something along the lines of "we're valuable artists who add variety and character to this city, please fund us." This confident approach worked, and I believe the funding came through. (Maybe this was all a dream, and this guest lecture never happened... but I'm fairly certain it did. Either way, I was inspired by it.) 

Today in class we discussed collaboration with other colleges, and the best way to go about initiating that cooperative creativity. I was instantly reminded of this memory from Professor Goldsmith's guest lecture. How important it is to approach collaboration with confidence in ourselves, and in the other party! Rather than approaching it as "we're desperate and need saving..." or "we're being pushed by our professor to collaborate so I'm sending you this email..." we should approach intersectionality across campus as "we have a lot of valuable insight that can be strengthened by your valuable insight, and vice versa." There are silos of knowledge across campus, waiting to be tapped and bridged. Each college contains a rich supply of expertise and unique ways of knowing. But these isolated stores of knowledge are limited in their power. To make lasting impacts, they must be combined and connected. They must be allowed to work as an ecosystem-- fueling, strengthening, refining, enhancing one another. 

I find myself simultaneously excited by the prospects of this collaboration, and terrified of the ramifications if it's never achieved. There is so much potential to be used, but so much to be lost. It's a precious commodity-- potential. Especially in a world which feels so grim, stagnant, and systemically blocked. The warmth of potential offers a small, but much needed glimmer of hope, in a hopeless world.