Lindsey Trimmer
Honors Portfolio
Environmental Studies Minor
My environmental studies minor acted as supplement to what I explored in my other classes and temporary homes at UW. Growing up in Davis, CA, a small university town in the central California agricultural valley, I always had a commitment to environmental protection. My home in Davis allowed me to understand the importance of considering the environmental within all aspects of life. This minor also allowed me to research my previous home, Long Island, NY and ultimately added an irreplaceable new dimension to my travels that also influenced my honors classes, experiential learning and professional internships.
Honors Classes
I always knew I was interested in the environment due to my upbringing in Davis, CA. My first experience studying it in school, however, was in my Honors class, "Eco-Cinema: The Filming of Waste" with Professor Bean. This class not only pushed me to understand film in a new way but also introduced me to environmental topics of interest that led me to take another Honors class "Disaster Science" and Envir 100 the next quarter. With Professor Pavia, I was able to explore how oil spills affect multiple aspects of the environment and the communities they occur near. I chose to do the Long Island Sound as part of my final project, allowing me to explore the affects of an oil spill on my previous home in Suffolk County, NY. From there, I've incorporated environmental considerations into a multitude of my studies, including exploring the alliance politics in Peru with Professor Lawson in Honors and with Professor Prakash in Political Science.
Envir 460 A
Environment 460 looked at the role of power and privilege in environmental protection, specifically how they dictate the relationship between protected lands and indigenous peoples. This class asked us to be prepare for each discussion with the readings read thoroughly, as many seminar based classes do. However, this class pushed us a little further. Each day when we arrived, we were asked to pick candy out of a bowl. If we picked the piece with a special mark, we were in charge of leading the discussion that day. This included giving a brief overview of the readings then prompting the class with questions or providing an activity to allow for more engagement with the topic. Each day of class, we had to come prepared and able to act as the teacher/discussion leader if fate led us to pick the determining piece of candy. Through this constant preperation for every day of class, I was able to refine my ability to come up with discussion questions and further lines of inquiry from readings, as well as more efficient ways to digest a lot of information. Attached are three examples (all on one document) of discussion preparation I completed for our class, none of which (as luck would have it) I had the chance to present on but preparing these document gave me a greater understanding of the readings.
Environmental Politics
My first Environmental Studies class after the minor introduction courses was Global Environmental Politics. I was so excited to take this class because it incorporated two of my biggest passions, politics and the environment. However, it seemed as though my expectations were set a little bit too high; instead of being aligned with what I was passionate about (such as current environmental issues and how they relate to disenfranchised groups around the world) it focused on the history of environmental policy, a topic I previously explored in other classes and that I found quite dull. I ended up not doing as well in this class compared to others and it was the first time I realized the limitations of my passion. At times when a class doesn't keep me interested throughout the whole quarter, I become unmotivated and end up not preforming my best. However, I was happy that I got the chance to apply some of what I researched while in Munich (such as Germany's nuclear energy policy changed in the aftermath of Chernobyl) in the final project for this class. In the end, I was able to study environmental politics more thoroughly through the lens of non-governmental organizations in Professor Prakash's NGO Politics class.
Envir 100
Through my time in Environment 100, I participated in service learning, a program implemented through the Carlson Center to supplement the learning of classes through experience outside of the classroom. I had the opportunity to work as a Community Outreach Intern at the Sierra Club, an experience that helped shape both my professional and academic life throughout the rest of my college experience. From my internship at the Sierra Club I realized my interest in Environmental Politics and non-profit work. I then went on to intern at the Center for Environmental Law and Policy (CELP), which lead me to my development and communications internship at Crosscut Public Media. My time at Crosscut allowed me to explore more of my Seattle home and consider parts of the new city I found myself in through a new perspective of civic journalism. You can read more about my experiential learning experience at Crosscut under the Travel tab.
Through my time in Environment 100, I participated in service learning, a program implemented through the Carlson Center to supplement the learning of classes through experience outside of the classroom. I had the opportunity to work as a Community Outreach Intern at the Sierra Club, an experience that helped shape both my professional and academic life throughout the rest of my college experience. From my internship at the Sierra Club I realized my interest in Environmental Politics and non-profit work. I then went on to intern at the Center for Environmental Law and Policy (CELP), which lead me to my development and communications internship at Crosscut Public Media. My time at Crosscut allowed me to explore more of my Seattle home and consider parts of the new city I found myself in through a new perspective of civic journalism. You can read more about my experiential learning experience at Crosscut under the Travel tab.