Signing up for V515 was a bit of a gamble, as I am not part of any SPEA programs nor did I know anyone who had taken this course previously. I was hoping it would relate to my interest in connecting sustainability to the higher education realm, which it actually did. That was one of the things I enjoyed most about the course: connecting the material in this class with my courses in the School of Education. A lot of rich conversation in my other courses stemmed from things I learned in V515 and I even felt that I brought I different perspective to V515 being the only non-SPEA student at the table. The blog was a pretty significant challenge for me. It felt as though I was a step behind everyone not being a SPEA student. While I was busy doing research and developing my base knowledge of the ideas posed in class, many of my classmates seemed to already have the base knowledge that they could springboard off of to craft engaging and thoughtful blogs. This challenge was appreciated, however, because I had to work hard to research and synthesize new ideas, something I desire to do as a graduate student.
Concerning the out-of-class experiences: these were all things I would have done on my own anyway so they weren't as much of a challenge.Becoming more involved in the sustainability community in any place I live is something I strive to do, so this gave me a great opportunity to explore what Bloomington has to offer and familiarize myself with my options for acquiring sustainability knowledge. Additionally, in having to write the blogs, it was nice to have built-in time for reflection on those experiences though. I know that if I had gone to these events and not been forced to sit and reflect, I may not have made the same connections to my life or explored as deeply the experience I had and I appreciate that opportunity. I think the JITT method for the twitter feed does along with this too. Having to slow down and digest the readings each week in a critical way helped the words on the page come to life in my own world and illuminated a lot of things that were going on around me that I had never noticed before. The links to articles and videos related to the various topics we discussed also built my arsenal of websites to read and reference regarding sustainability.
Finally, some criticism. The NESCO project has been difficult to define in my head for a while and I think it boils down to the fact that I felt very powerless in the process. The task force working on this initiative has been doing so for quite some time now and I felt as we moved forward with the project that what I was bringing to the table was old news or just plain not feasible. Perhaps this had to do with the focus of my group (the brownfield site) but I had a hard time feeling like I was actually useful to this organization. I do hope that the overall effort of our class aligns with what their expectations were coming in and I am looking forward to hearing how they feel about what is presented on Tuesday.
Overall, I had a few a-ha moments in this course this semester. I have also gleaned a lot of valuable tools to use moving forward in my sustainability-focused career (The CBSM is amazing!!!!). I appreciate the thought and innovative techniques that were built in to the class structure; it kept things interesting and certainly kept me on my toes. Thank you for a great introduction to sustainability here at IU. It was the perfect way to get to know what it looks like to be a green Hoosier.
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