This past fall, senior students had the opportunity to take the 500-Level elective, Sustainability Seminar, with Dr. Laubach. I chose to enroll in the course after spending two weeks as a Leopold Scholar this summer, wanting to learn more about the multidisciplinary field of sustainability, as the course delves into the policy and justice aspects, in addition to the scientific implications. In class, we primarily read and engaged in various conversations regarding current climate change concerns. Waste, agriculture, emissions, land stewardship, and water were the units we covered. While covering some of these topics, such as waste, food, water, and emissions, we read extensively on the connection to social justice, allowing us to investigate how climate change directly affects humanity in a variety of ways that I was previously unaware of. We discovered that socioeconomics, demographics, and politics all influence, and were influenced by, the climate, reading on current event issues such as Jackson’s water crisis.
In addition to the productive discussions in class, the course provided me with the opportunity to witness and experience out-of-class and real-life applications when we went on field trips. These included places like Arm In Arm in Trenton, a community organization dedicated to helping local residents get access to safe and healthy food, and the Hydrogen House, which educates the public on the use of hydrogen fuel cells as a potential energy solution and conducts research and development for clean energy technologies. Mike Strizki, the founder of the Hydrogen House, and the driver behind this lifelong work, gave the students a tour of his project and home, as well as the opportunity to display an effective and feasible solution to carbon emissions through his findings. With this knowledge, we were able to establish that corporations and their contested values are one of the reasons climate change cannot be resolved promptly.
At the end of the term, the class created a website on Wix that outlines a specific climate issue, Lawrenceville’s current response initiatives, future plans, and existing models in other institutions that may be observed in the future. These websites were made for prospective students applying to Lawrenceville to look into. This seminar offered me enticing insights into the sustainability measures that Lawrenceville has pursued in the past, and wants to pursue in the future, as well as pushed me to study more about general climate change issues when I would not have had the opportunity to do otherwise. I recommend this class to any senior who is interested in learning more about climate change issues in the future.
