“This course has been a springboard for the rest of my undergraduate education. I plan to instill the values and knowledge from this course into every step of my academic journey. I am so excited to apply all of the wonderful experiences to new areas. Thank you all for the most special semester ever.”
“This class has been an excellent addition to my undergraduate career, and I wish I had the ability to have taken it sooner. The lessons I learned in this class are ones I will carry with me forever (while I will definitely forget all of the information I learned in most of my chemistry courses). It shifted my mindset from yearning for data and research to appreciating how I feel as an individual. I had never had such a discussion-heavy class, and it allowed me to think about things more deeply and generate my own opinions and thoughts other than the ones thrown at me in STEM classes. I could see myself come out of my shell more and more throughout the semester and that would not have been possible without such a supportive welcoming environment this class created. I’m glad we could all be on this journey together and I cannot thank everyone enough for giving me the opportunity to experience this all with you.”
“As for my personal continuation of what I have learned (simply begun to learn), I will continue to be very intentional in how I integrate the natural world into the whole of my life. I will continue to read and learn diverse perspectives about nature, letting myself learn from the unique struggles as well as special connections that people of different, marginalized identities face in regard to their relationships with nature. Recognizing the amount of privilege I have and how I can be an ally to those who have less is a lifelong journey. Also, there are many complexities in how we connect to nature, and I intend to keep unpacking the complexities of the divisions we draw between ourselves and the natural world, and between our lives and time in nature, aiming to take on a more integrated, holistic mindset about my relationship to nature and my role in the natural world.”
“So what exactly is this Nature class you keep talking about?” remains a question which has been posed to me countless times, yet I have never been able to perfectly articulate what this class means to me. I had previously read many accounts of profound transformations taking place as communities of compassion form, but I was not expecting to be part of such a community this semester. [...] I have been warned many times that the work I strive to do will take its toll on me, but this class has opened my eyes to the power and importance of community to hold you steady and keep you grounded. Even now as I sit down to express my sheer gratitude for my mentors and peers, I find myself falling back into time, feeling every hearty laugh, every heavy pause, and each miraculous moment of connecting with the natural world. There are moments which I doubt I could ever forget.”