Land Use and Landscape Change
This course examined land use policy and management strategies on various scales, and provided a survey of the multiple dimensions of land use change, including history, economics, policy, politics, ethics, and science. We especially explored the topics of stakeholder management and conservation easements, and made trips to nature preserves, homesteads, and even a natural cemetery in the area to understand different land management practices. We also worked in the Ithaca College Natural Lands, boundary-mapping with GPS and Google Earth, removing invasive plant species, marking trails, and editing the management plan. My final project for the course was the creation of a new trail in Ithaca College's Regenerative Use Area, leading to an outdoor classroom area from the road.
Environmental Sentinels
This hands-on field course served as the foundation of my degree in Environmental Studies, and got me out into the natural environment right away. Taught entirely in the field, Sentinels taught me wilderness awareness and primitive skills, including reading the forested landscape, friction fire making, navigation, survival shelter-making, animal tracking, cordage making, tree identification, and wild edible plant identification. In addition to our classtime out exploring the Ithaca College Natural Lands, I spent several hours of "dirt time" per week out at my sit spot, mapping and observing landscape features, plant species, and wildlife tracks and sign. Sentinels fostered my curiosity about the natural world, and now I am no longer a stranger to the forest.
Farming the Forest: Non-Timber Forest Products
This is a hands-on course in which students learn ways to create revenue from the forest without cutting down trees. Students become professionals in maple syrup production, indoor oyster mushroom cultivation, and apiculture, and become employees of South Hill Forest Products, the student-run business associated with the course. In addition to the trades of maple sugaring, mushroom growing, and beekeeping, this course taught me advertising and publicity skills, as well as some of the leadership, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills necessary in running a business.
My coursework at Ithaca College has provided me with both a strong academic framework and experience in hands-on applications. Check out some of the highlights:
Coursework
Additional Courses:
Intermediate Research in Apiculture and Medicinal Plants
Senior Research in Mapping and Remote Sensing
Human-Environment Geography
Environmental Science and Technology
Interdisciplinary Physical Science
Population and Community Ecology
Environmental Economics
History of American Environmental Thought
The Human Relationship with the Modern Natural World
Senior Capstone in Environmental Studies
Proposal and Grant Writing
The Anthropology of Food
Gardening Principles and Practices
Native Americans and the Environment
The Iroquois
+7 semesters of college-level German language
Additional Projects:
Senior Capstone Project in Environmental Studies: