During the 2012 Spring semester, I had the opportunity to study in Australia with the School for International Training. I spent most of my time learning from academics, practitioners, and Aboriginal elders about the 'culture of sustainability' while traveling throughout the country. My travels took me from Queensland all the way down to the island-state of Tasmania. This travel experience tremendously broadened my understanding of both local and global sustainability, solidified my environmental worldview, and expanded my interests within the field of environmental studies. The program included the following components:



PART I: Sustainability and Environmental Action

This seminar portion of the program involved lectures, field trips, and experiential learning methods centered around the following themes: sense of place, familiarity with the natural environment, environmental philosophy and ethics, Aboriginal relationships with the environment, and social change and environmental movements. I learned an incredible amount from this seminar -from the climate, geology, and soils to the places I visited, to my environmental philosophy to the processes of social change and how I can take effective action to achieve environmental goals.



PART II: Field Methods

The field methods component of this program significantly prepared me for my independent study project and other research experiences I have participated in since returning home. I learned about and designed my own data collection methods from a social science perspective such as survey design and distribution, interview design and implementation, and various forms of content analysis. I also learned the process of obtaining research ethics approval by an Institutional Review Board, which has proved very beneficial to my latest research endeavors. 



PART III: Independent Study Project (IPS)

For my Independent Study Project, I completed a 5-week internship with the Green Party of New South Wales in the office of Member of Parliament Jeremy Buckingham. More specifically, I worked as a researcher and campaign organizer for their statewide campaign against coal seam gas mining or 'fracking'. As such, I had three major responsibilities at the office in addition to the completion of a lengthy paper and oral presentation to the students of my program. 



My first responsibility was to create a website linked to a Google Map that displayed all of the environmental incidents associated with coal seam gas mining in Australia. That involved using Freedom of Information Requests in addition to various types of outreach to obtain as much information as possible about the environmental incidents. This website is now used by the office for current campaign efforts and may be viewed here.



My second task was to organize and plan for a major rally against coal seam gas at Parliament. This aspect of my internship involved grassroots organizing, interaction with Greens groups from all over New South Wales, and attention to detail. The rally was very successful and brought groups from both the environmental and agricultural sectors.



Finally, I helped to plan Mr. Buckingham's tour of high-volume slick-water hydraulic fracturing operations in the United States for this past summer. This allowed me to connect my interest in the campaign against 'fracking' in the U.S. with similar environmental and social concerns in Australia. I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to participate in this internship, as it allowed me to become familiar with environmentally and socially responsible representation and legislation in Parliament and to meet various key leaders in the environmental movement in Australia -in particular, Mr. Drew Hutton, a founding member of the first Green Party of Australia.