Individualized Major In Environment: A Personal Approach To The Environment

The term environment extends beyond the collection of different variables—climate, area, terrain fragmentation, the stability of food supply, etc.; it is a compilation of activities performed by numerous households, communities, and societies before us. Men intervene with environmental systems constantly, and although one’s action may not seemingly have an effect directly, still individual actions matter, as they combine with performance of other people and are amplified by technology. Urie Bronfenbrenner, developmental psychologist and co-founder of the Head Start Program1, who believed that a persons development is affected by everything in his surrounding environment, in his Ecological Systems Theory emphasized that the microsystem or the

In my focus particularly are societies of the Westernized parts of the world. Their activities within, attitudes towards, values regarding and comprehensiveness of the complexity of the environment they live and operate in. Consequently, my personal goal is to gain a deep knowledge of the interconnectedness of human activity and alterations it does to the environment. Equally, I also aim to understand how attitudes and values (towards the environment) are passed from generations to generations. After successfully accomplishing studies, my goal is to collaborate with the representatives of the younger generations and promote awareness of their deportment on a more global scale. Academically, my strategy is to pursue an Individualized Major in Environment and Society and to successfully accomplish Minor in Psychology withal. Environment and Society as a traditional Major is offered at the University of California, Berkley and at the University of Minnesota. To enhance the experience of the Individual Major, during my Junior and Senior years at Emmanuel College, I aspire to attend Environmental Forum provided every spring by Colleges of Fenway. As a capstone experience I foresee myself undergoing an internship in a locally based Education Outreach Program2. On this matter, I would like to accentuate that I am already participating in the

First of all, the core of my Individualize Major consists of sociology classes (40%), Biology classes (15%), Psychology classes (15%), and the remaining section (30%) is a complex of classes cross-sectioning environment (THRS2108 Religion and Environment, ECON3115 Economy and Environment, PHYS1122 Energy and Environment). None of the Departments at Emmanuel College is offering such combination. The most proximate program offered is the International Studies with concentration in Sustainability + Global Justice. Seemingly, this particular program could suit my interest as the concentration elective options partly overlap with some of the courses I encompassed into my Individual Major, for example, Economics and the Environment, or Religion and Environmental Issues. However, on the other hand, the core course requirements for International Studies focuses on Law, Economics and International Relations, which are of a secondary focal point in this individually crafted program. Afresh, my primary interest is how individual, family, community, and society correlate with the environment. Hence, a significant part in the core course for Individualized Major plays lectures from the field of Sociology. Subsequently, one may argue that I then should pursue a