Alumni Snapshot: Chelsea Weiskerger

What do Cottonwood Institute students go on to do later in life? What are these folks doing today to feed their passion for the outdoors and the environment? Well, over the past few weeks I have been getting back in touch with Cottonwood Institute Alumni to see what they are up to. The first alumnus I spoke with was Chelsea Weiskerger, who took the Endangered Wolves and Animal Tracking course in the summer of 2005. Here is what she had to say:

Q: What are you up to these days?

A: Since the course in 2005, I have been a college student (it is my third year) at Colorado State University, studying Wildlife Biology and Spatial Computer Information Systems (making maps). I have been lucky enough to work in research laboratories at CSU and do field work in Northeastern Colorado and Pingree Park, (just North of Rocky Mountain National Park).

Q: What is your favorite Cottonwood Institute memory or story from your course?

A: My favorite Cottonwood Institute memories would be getting to meet Magpie and Raven at Mission:Wolf, doing volunteer work on trails and roads around Mission:Wolf, and waking up to the wolves howling every morning. It was a great trip overall!

Q: What environmental issue are you most passionate about and what are you doing to address it?

A: Right now, I am most passionate about global climate change and its effects on wildlife populations into the future. That is actually the topic of my thesis for school – I am researching the effects of global climate change on bird populations on the Galapagos Islands and Hawaii, to come up with conservation plans for them in light of the potential consequences of global climate change.

CAP Update, 2nd Quarter 2008

2nd quarter CAP is in full swing!  We’re a small group, but we have a lot of inspiration.  The past few weeks have been an inquiry into the local environmental issues of the city of Boulder and Boulder County.

We began with a visit from Ghita Carroll, BVSD’s new sustainability coordinator.  Ghita led us on an energy audit of the school.  We will have the results available soon on this web-page.  After our VISTA with Ghita we jumped right into thinking about our personal environmental footprints and what we can do in our lives to make them smaller.  On Monday we had a visit from Jenelle Freeston of the Keep It Clean Partnership, to learn about our watershed…. Do you know where your water comes from?

Amid visits from community resources, and inquiries into personal footprinting, the class has had many engaging discussions about what part personal responsibility plays in larger global and cultural environmental issues.

With all that deep thought all of us  needed a break.  Luckily, before we knew it, the first overnight was upon us!

We spent the weekend learning survival priorities, back-country skills, practicing leadership roles, and discussing Leave No Trace, or LNT principles.  I can’t forget to mention several rockin’ games of Camouflage, and an intense round of “Big Booty” around the campfire.

On Sunday we completed fire mitigation service work in return for our stay on Calwood’s land.

I am impressed, delighted, and thrilled to have an engaged, thoughtful, and excited group in CAP.  This week we will be choosing our action project topic, I’m looking forward to seeing what it is…. Paige.

The New and Improved Cottonwood Institute Website!

After many long hours and a lot of hard work, the Cottonwood Institute is excited to announce the launching of its new website!  In addition to being much easier to navigate, the site offers a variety of new features and course listings that we can’t wait to share with you.

Under the Courses Section of the homepage you will find newly designed summer programs for students such as the Mountain Biking Survival Project, where students can get dirty riding the trails of Colorado while learning important wilderness survival skills. We have also designed new 1-day workshops for Schools & Community Organizations that would like to bring a more enriching experience to their students without incorporating a full semester long class into their schedule. These include courses such as Avalanche Science the Physiology of Survival.

Have you ever wondered how much you impact the environment just by driving your car or taking out the trash? In the Community Resources Section of the homepage you can learn how to Reduce Your Environmental Footprint, fascinating Green Facts, and Sustainability Resources for the classroom and for your own personal use. Increase your awareness and knowledge of the environment and take action!

While exploring the new Cottonwood Institute website, check out the Why Us section where you can enjoy the short Videos and Photos from this past Summer Courses. And don’t forget to visit the Cottonwood Institute Store! The holiday season is upon us once again and we just might have the perfect holiday gift you’ve been looking for.

We wanted to give a special shout out to our friends at Unique Blog Designs for doing a fantastic job and to our board member Mikal Belicove for overseeing the project. Enjoy the website and we’ll see you at: CottonwoodInstitute.org!

1st Web Journal 2nd quarter 2008

Welcome to your first web journal question! 

Now that we have completed our preliminary course work: you’ve learned a little bit about your environmental footprint, spent some time getting to know the natural world, and begun to think about reducing energy use at school…

How do you feel?  Are you inspired, overwhelmed, hopeful, confused?  Do you find it motivating to learn this information?  Are there some concrete actions you will take in your life given the information you learned? 

Journal Entry Guidelines: 

The standard 4, 3, 2, 1 grading scale outlined in the syllabus will apply to these required journal entries. I expect you to put at least 15-30 minutes of time thinking about the question, writing and editing your response, and posting your comment. Comments that contain 2 paragraphs of well articulated thoughts with no spelling or grammar errors will receive a grade of a 4. If your journal entry is only 1 or 2 sentences you have not spent the time, energy, and level of thought I am looking for and will receive a grade of a 2 or 1. Because this is a public forum, proofreading, spelling, and grammar are key!

Multiplication Saves the Day, by Bill McKibben

In class we read the article "Multiplication Saves the Day: How just a few of us can save the planet" by Bill McKibben.  One of the pieces of advice he gives, in order to multiply the impact of individual citizens own actions, is to join a movement larger than yourself.  McKibben writes:

"So here’s the thing.  Along with spending a lot of time figuring out how to make your own life practically green (because it’s true, how are you going to face your kids if you don’t?), spend at least a little time figuring out how to engage in the symbolic political action that might actually add up to something useful."

Some of the websites he suggest checking out are:

We Can Solve It

www.wecansolveit.org

Project Laundry List:

http://www.laundrylist.org/

350.org

www.350.org

Your Task in your journals: Check out each of these websites and write a brief (about one paragraph) summary of the purpose of each of these websites. 

Answer the following questions:  As a high school aged student do you feel motivated to act politically?  Why or Why Not? 

In what ways do you feel you have impact in your larger community?