ENVS 295: Environmental Engagement
Lewis & Clark College | Spring 2020
Satya Austin-Opper
Course Summary
Environmental Engagement is a course dedicated to exploring the best and most effective ways to communicate with people regardless of differing backgrounds and beliefs. Engagement, as defined in our class, is communication towards action. We have learned that dialogue is one of the most effective ways to engage because it allows different stories to be told and listened to. It is just as important to listen to other people's point of view as it is to get your own point across. This semester, we have successfully engaged with many different actors in the Pacific NorthWest who potentially have different interests and ways of engaging with the environment. These interests include, but are not limited to, forest and wildlife management, tribal rights, and agriculture. Through this engagement we have started to build partnerships with organizations in Portland. I, and three of my peers, have been focused on learning about and fostering a relationship with Green Empowerment, an NGO who focuses on creating access to renewable energy and clean water in communities across South America and SouthEast Asia.Engagement Partnership
One important part of ENVS 295 is an environmental engagement partnership with a Portland-area organization. The page linked above offers information and resources I helped compile for my organizational partner this semester.Engagement Project
Building on the engagement partnership above, our team developed a related engagement project in collaboration with the partner. The page linked above offers details on our engagement project.My Course Posts
I've done a series of posts throughout the semester related to readings, our partnership, our project, and my thoughts on environmental engagement. See below for all posts I've published, in reverse order by date.
Feedback to date Green Empowerment staff representative and Program Coordinator: Daniel Schollaert April 2020 Don’t focus on attracting volunteers, as their service learning program has ended. “Fundraising and Friendraising” efforts are most valuable. Green Empowerment has an interesting history and start that we could share through our video project. Due […]
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Access to affordable and reliable energy is a vital element for sustainable development. In the off-grid and rural areas of developing countries, energy solutions have received an increasing amount of attention due to their contributions to reducing poverty. However, most of the rural population in many developing countries still has […]
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Justification Green Empowerment relies on community support for funding and labor for the projects. Because they are based in Portland, the put on events around the city to teach people about what they do, hopefully attract new supporters, and to raise money. Green Empowerment is included in events that take […]
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Defining Engagement As we worked to define what engagement means to us, as a class, we came to acknowledge it as a search for a co-production of knowledge. Many of us are coming into this class with strong personal opinions that are derived from our unique and diverse backgrounds. These […]
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What + Who = How Our What’s are the controversy surrounding solar energy and other renewable energy sources that Green Empowerment helps implement in rural communities. Our Who is our Green Empowerment partners, as well as, Green Empowerment itself. One possible How approach that connects our What to our Who […]
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Our Focused Readings The Hidden Tribes study consists of a number of questions on your views about the world and places you into one of the seven profiles (Progressive Activists, Traditional Liberals, Passive Liberals, Politically Disengaged, Moderates, Traditional Conservatives, Devoted Conservatives). The Passive Liberals tribe is the largest as 26% […]
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With technology playing a part in many of our everyday lives, it can feel overwhelming to constantly be alerted by notifications, messages, and daily news from around the world. Technology delivers information at such a constant rate, that this absorption is reflected into how we respond to much of what […]
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Effective Action The Introduction to Effective Altruism reading from Tuesday went into detail about the three criteria for effective action: great in scale (effects as many people as possible), highly neglected (few other people are working to address the problem), and highly solvable (additional resources will do a great deal […]
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Overview Bright and early on the morning of Friday January 31, our ENVS 295 class set out on a field trip. The first stop on our trip was the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center Museum, located on the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge about 45 minutes east of Portland. Getting […]
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