Alumni update extravaganza!

Sarah Mack - 2017

If you asked me one year ago where I would be in one year I would NEVER say that I would be working for a former NJ Senator. Life has a crazy way of making you think you know what is coming next, but then throwing a wrench in things and pushing you in a whole new direction. 

Working with a large group of students on a research project from multiple disciplines has helped me develop my leadership, communication, and critical thinking abilities. I have learned that leadership qualities exist in everyone of us. Whether you are the director of a project or an assistant in the field,  being leaders in research is being supportive and building each other up to empower yours and your peers' strengths in research. Communication is also vital in an interdisciplinary research approach. Including everyone's ideas and perspectives during the research processes is important to creating a well formed, inclusive, and impactful research project. Whether communication entails reaching out to your peers for help, or conveying difficult thought processes, communication is imperative to sustaining cohesive and lasting research results. 

Are Environmental Issues Freedom Issues?

Two hundred and thirty-nine years later after our independence from Great Britain, the United States remains an independent nation and a global symbol of freedom. Today the discussion of freedom resonates through different citizens who question its definition and application. As a student, a woman, a young adult and a citizen with close family members in another country, defining and understanding freedom is something I often grapple with.

Venice Beach, Los Angeles

Growing up in Southern California, I have had the privilege of only being an hour away from Los Angeles, beaches, mountains and more. Throughout high school and college my free time (and paychecks) have been spent in Los Angeles or on the warm Southern California beaches along the coast. During California's hot summers you can catch me strolling through Venice Beach, grabbing ice cream in Santa Monica, visiting Los Angeles' art museums, and mostly attending music festivals and concerts. Coincidentally, spending the summer in Menomonie has offered me a wonderful opportunity outside of research. As a music festival junkie, I will be attending Euax Claires music festival in two weeks with Lisette Solis! We are so excited to be doing research that we love and getting to partake in our hobbies out in Wisconsin. 

Redefining Your Environment

According to Merriam Webster Dictionary:

Environment: en·vi·ron·ment: the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded.

Sustainable: sus·tain·able: able to last or continue for a long time.

My collegiate history of involvement with environmental protests, petitions, campaigns, and resolutions have taught me a great deal about local and global environmental issues and sustainability. What these experiences have failed to teach me is how to define and place these environmental issues into any context. It wasn't until I became an anthropology major that I began to value the importance of definition; more specifically the ability to redefine what "the environment" encompasses and what it means to be "sustainable". Countless ethnographies, classes and discussions have opened my eyes to the complexities that exist within understanding and defining the boundaries of environmental issues, eliminating my naivety in believing there is any ease in achieving a sustainable environment.

Navigating Menomonie

My interests in sustainability arise from yearly trips to visit and live with my family in Guatemala. Scenic volcanoes, clear lakes, bustling cities, and loving relatives fill my memories as a young child, yet are juxtaposed against the more recent memories of air pollution, deforestation and toxic waterways. The accumulation of my experiences in Guatemala made visible the relationship between society, health and the environment, and fueled my interests in environmentalism and sustainability as a high school student. These interests transitioned into passions, and I became an anthropology major to engage in scholarly conversations between humans, culture, and the environment. Entering my fourth year as an anthropology student, I have been fortunate to engage in these conversations through many peer and academic opportunities that have solidified my enthusiasm in applying my passion and knowledge to environmental issues, and more recently the Red Cedar Basin.