Shane Lynette

Shane Lynette

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Course Summary

I believe ENVS 295 is about the fragile process of listening and learning. I say fragile because in today's climate it is very easy to get caught in the habit of narrow mindedness. It's very easy to listen to someone with the intent of responding to them rather than actually contemplate what they've told you and actually learn from it. I believe that mindfulness and the ability to learn and see things from other perspectives is the key to our environmental problems. I'd say the biggest thing I've accomplished so far in ENVS 295 is broadening my view of how the world views environmental studies. I used to think that everyone was equally aware or had equal opportunity to participate in environmental movements. But after taking this class for half a semester and engaging with organizations such as the Center For Diversity and The Environment and PCUN I now see that not everyone gets equal opportunity to participate in environmental movements. Many minorities are in fact excluded and for no good reason at all. While what I've learned is quite sad, I'm glad I was made aware because I feel that I have more passion to direct towards environmental affairs. I've learned a lot throughout my short time in ENVS 295. I'd say the biggest thing I've learned so far is that the power of conversation and listening is much more important then I had thought before. I used to think about things very one-sidedly and because I believed that everything I've learned about environmental studies is based on fact then there is only one way of looking at it. To my surprise, I couldn't have been more wrong. While it may be true that fact is fact, there is still a multitude of different ways to view environmental situations because of the many diverse perspectives that are concerned with the environment.

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.