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[national study experience]: Study in the Southwest!

Wild Rockies Field Institute is now accepting applications for their spring field study opportunity. The course runs from March 25th- May 24th.  For more information see their website: http://wrfi.net/courses/colorado-plateau.html 

CREDITS: 15 total (NEW COURSE ADDED for 2013- Native American Studies 395)

o    Environmental Studies 395: Field Studies in Human/Ecological Communities & Public Lands Issues; Section: Public Land Issues of the Colorado Plateau (3 credits)

o    Environmental Studies 395: Field Studies in Human/Ecological Communities & Public Lands Issues; Section: Environment and Culture of the Colorado Plateau (3 credits)

o    Science 395: Natural History of the Colorado Plateau (3 credits)

o    Geography 347: Geography of the Colorado Plateau (3 credits)

o    Native American Studies 395: Indians of the American Southwest- Relationships with the Land (3 credits)

[course]: ESRM 321, Finance & Accounting from a Sustainability Perspective, SLN 1395

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This course will satisfy the NW or I&S General Education Requirements or the Policy and Decision Making Requirement of the Environmental Studies Major.   
  • ESRM 321 is an introductory business course designed for non-business majors.  It has no prerequisites.  
  • ESRM 321, Finance & Accounting From a Sustainability Perspective, SLN 13951, 5 credits, TU/TH 5:30-8 PM
 
Taught by a former stock broker, ESRM 321 explores finance and accounting fundamentals, stock markets and investing, and sustainable business practices that respect best environmental science methods and ethical social responsibility standards. This is a great opportunity for students to learn the language used by business professionals and about the connections between businesses, societies and the environment.
 
What does sustainability mean, and how is it manifested in business? Various definitions of sustainability have been used, but all share a common understanding that sustainability refers to integrating environmental, social responsibility, and financial/economic elements in order to meet the needs of people today without compromising Earth’s capacity to provide for future generations. Said another way, practicing sustainability involves balancing the three Ps: planet, people, and profits

Looking for Perspectives & Experience courses?

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The PoE website is going through some technical difficulties and we haven’t been able to post the Perspective and Experiences classes for Winter 2013 – sorry about that! If you are looking for some fun and exciting courses to fill your requirements, you can check out the link HERE to see what is available next quarter. 

Also, make sure to look at the PoE instructor profiles to see how some of your teachers got involved in their course subjects!

The website will be updated as soon as possible, sorry for the delay.

[course]: ENVIR 495 A: Literature, Culture, and the Environment: The Human Animal

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This course can fulfill the ‘human and social dimensions’ requirement of either the Environmental Studies major or minor

The Human Animal: German 298, Clit 298, Envir 495, and English 365.

Professor Richard Block (blockr@uw.edu).

MWF: 11:30-12:30, Condon Hall 139.

VLPA (can perhaps be taken for “W” credit with approval of instructor)

Modernity’s unprecedented assertion of human rights has been an equally unprecedented disaster for our fellow creatures. Never before have humans so systematically slaughtered and tortured the other animals on the planet in service of their own needs. To boot, human-caused global warming threatens the survival of as much as 65 percent of the known species on the planet. How is it that we have come to be at war with our animal nature? Has it always been that way or is it something about how humans have come to view themselves in the wake of the Enlightenment and its civilizing processes that now threatens the very survival of our fellow creatures. These are the questions that will frame discussions in this course. We will pursue a loose historical trajectory, beginning with antiquity, to consider how previous ages have understood their relations with the animal kingdom. We will be also interested in how privileging the human has led to the dehumanization and slaughter of so-called lesser humans. Finally, we will consider the role of the human, if any, at the end of days when, according. to the Book of Isiah, the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat.

Course format:  Lecture and discussion

Course requrements:  Two short essays and a final longer essay (It may be possible to take the course for “W”credit.).

Readings include:  Ovid, The Metamorphosis (excerpts); Aristotle (excerpts various works); essays from Montaigne and Descartes; H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau; Herman Melville, “The Whiteness of the Whale” from Moby Dick;  Virginia Woolf, Flush; Edward Albee, The Goat; and Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, We Three (a graphic novel); King Kong (the movie).  On occasion we will also consider selected chapters from The Old Testament.

What You Can Expect to Learn in This Class:

How the current environmental crisis can be traced to our changed relations with the animal kingdom;

How to historicize texts and refuse naturalizing the present;

How to read closely and compose a coherent and cogent essay based on those readings.

[course] Featured Teacher Profiles for Winter 2013

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Do you ever wonder how your instructors end up teaching about a particular subject, like soils or cartography… or even trash? Read below about two extremely passionate PoE instructors, how they became involved in their fields, and their unique courses offered Winter Quarter 2013!

Frederica Helmiere grew up in the suburbs of Washington D.C. in a household that produced a lot of trash. She studied religion and environmental science at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where she experienced composting for the first time. A stint on a small Philippine Island with the Peace Corps exposed her to trash on a whole new level: different cultural norms around littering, different methods of disposing of waste in a village with no trash pickup service, and different impacts of waste on bodies and the land. She earned a joint masters degree from the Forestry School and Divinity School at Yale, focusing on the eco-justice movement. She moved out to Seattle after graduating and has been teaching at the Program on the Environment ever since. Frederica researched e-waste and transboundary dumping for a forthcoming book by a Seattle University professor and hasn’t been able to stop thinking about trash since then.

Megan Horst is excited to engage in action to reduce waste on the UW campus and in her own life. Her interest in waste was sparked as an undergrad student at Eckerd College in St Petersburg, Florida. As leader of the campus environmental club, Megan worked with the Service Learning Office and Housing/Facilities Services to implement the school’s first comprehensive recycling program – all student run. Megan spent many hours collecting recyclables (lots of beer bottles) from dorms. Megan also spent time in a small village in Honduras as a Peace Corps Volunteer. There, she faced the reality of living in a village with no trash collection, no recycling, and no “out of sight, out of mind” mentailty. Inspired by her experience and the books “No Impact Man” and “Cradle to Cradle,” Megan strives to consume responsibly and produce as little waste as possible. Megan looks forward to developing greater personal commitment as well as community consciousness in her upcoming courses.  While teaching, Megan also is working towards her PhD in Urban Design and Planning, focusing on regional foodshed governance.

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Take a look at this cool video made by students from the Spring 2012 UW Sustainability Studio course! 

Already thinking about classes for next quarter and looking for a cool course? The upcoming Sustainability Studio topic this Winter will be Zero Waste: From You to UW, taught by one of PoE’s wonderful teaching associates, Megan Horst. The course is primarily project-based where students are able to get involved with environmental efforts and projects on campus and at the community level. 

 It’s definitely worth checking out!

ENVIR 480, Tuesday/Thursday, 10:30AM-12:20PM

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

NEW Social Enterprise Leadership Certificate Program

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Using Business to Solve Social and Environmental Challenges

Ready to launch a career in solving social or environmental challenges? UW Bothell has recruited leading Directors and CEOs of international nonprofit organizations to create a cutting edge curriculum that empowers students to develop market-based business ideas to solve social and environmental challenges. The UWB Certificate is an evolution of nonprofit management courses that teaches students how to go beyond fundraising to create more sustainable revenue streams for their social cause. In a collaborative entrepreneurial environment, students are provided the practical tools and marketing methodology to develop and lead their own initiatives.  

Open to all majors in all three UW campuses!

To apply and/or learn more please visit the website or email the program manager at satamian@uwb.edu with questions

Read more below to see the dates, information about the instructors, and testimonials from current students

Dates: Building off the success of this summer’s cohort, this year’s fall program will run from  October 16  – January 15 (No class from Dec 19-Jan 2), on Tuesday and Thursdays evenings, from 6:30-8:30pm (with optional one hour labs after each class).  Students will have the choice to attend classes at either UWB or the HUB in downtown Seattle (a space for social enterprise collaboration). 

About the instructors: Steve Atamian is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Global Brigades, the world’s largest student-led health and sustainable development organization. Under Steve’s leadership of Global Brigades, more than 10,000 university students and professionals have mobilized to support communities in Central America and Ghana through nine skill-based service programs. Starting with just one student chapter in 2004, it has organically institutionalized on more than 400 university chapters across North America and Europe. 

Cole is the co-founder and Director of Programs at Lumana, an organization that works to reduce poverty and increase opportunity for rural Africans through the provision of better financial services. In addition to the design of better tools for the rural poor to save, borrow and receive business education. Cole began his career as an organizer and educator by helping to found the start up Your Revolution which created applications for online voter registration during the 2008 election. Since then he has worked with a team building a social network for renewable energy coalitions, as the VP of business development for a tech start up and as a volunteer coordinator for Real Change magazine’s Initiative 100. Cole has also worked as a guest lecturer, mentor and curriculum creator in Universities all over the world focusing on poverty alleviation and the millennial generation’s role in global change. Cole currently lives between Seattle and Ghana.

Testimonials: Click here to read what current students have to say about the course

[course]: ESRM 320 Marketing and Human Resources from a Sustainability Perspective

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Hello!

 

My name is Robb Schmitt, and I’m the TA for Dr. Dorothy Paun’s autumn quarter ESRM 320 course, Marketing and Human Resources From a Sustainability Perspective.

 

ABOUT ESRM 320…

For-profit companies and non-profit organizations use marketing and human resources management to create and deliver products, services, and ideas. This course explores: 1) how markets are researched and targeted, 2) creating new products and services and positioning to meet consumer needs, 3) optimizing pricing strategies, 4) developing distribution channels, 5) implementing promotion campaigns, 6) managerial and leadership skills and styles, 7) how companies motivate employees and develop human capital, 8) methods for recruiting, selecting, training, and evaluating employees, and 9) business practices that are aligned with environmental stewardship and social responsibility standards.

 

Course Info

ESRM 320 (SLN 13858)

5 Credits

TU/TH 5:30-7:50 pm

http://courses.washington.edu/sustains/

 

There are a variety of reasons to take this course:

 

1) ESRM 320 has no prerequisites and was designed specifically for non-business majors.

 

2) For students interested in earning a minor, after autumn ESRM 320 you have the option of taking the winter quarter companion course (ESRM 321 Finance and Accounting from a Sustainability Perspective) which fulfills nearly half of the requirements for an environmental science minor in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.

 

3) ESRM 320 provides an opportunity to look at how companies affect the natural environment and corporate social responsibility.

 

I’m happy to answer any questions that you have via the email below!

 

Thanks very much for your time, and best regards,

 

Robb  Schmitt

ESRM 320 TA

University of Washington

170D Bloedel Hall

Seattle, WA 98195 USA

206.543.1714

schmittr@uw.edu

[course]: Green Labs and Sustainability on Campus

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Still plenty of space open in this unique field oriented course!

ENVIR 480 Sustainability Studio

Autumn 2012: Green Laboratories and Sustainability on Campus

TTH 10:30-12:20
SLN 13799

Help make UW’s laboratory spaces more environmentally-friendly!  Did you know that laboratory facilities comprise about 13% of the UW’s building inventory – altogether almost 2.4 million square feet? Did you know that laboratories use significantly more energy and water, per square foot, than office and residential buildings?

In response to this challenge, the UW Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability Office is launching a new Green Labs program. In Autumn 2012, ENVIR 480: Sustainability Studio, students will support this new program by engaging in activities such as:

·  Pilot testing the new Green Labs tool with specific groups on campus

·  Creating a framework for competitions among labs regarding resource use

·  Conducting outreach to different lab groups on campus to create awareness about the program

·  Developing a list of “how to” resources for the reporting tool

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This course is already approved as a ‘natural science’ perspectives course for the Environmental Studies major or minor. Please note that the course has recently changed from 2 to 3 credits, so it will now complete a full category requirement!