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Andrew J.
Angyal,
Professor - English
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Recipients: Andrew J. Angyal, English 339:
American Environmental Writer Carolyn Toben: Timberlake
Farm
Our Pericles Grant for environmental leadership
represented a close collaboration between the instructor
and students in English 339 and the director and staff of
Timberlake Farm to supplement students' academic
study of American environmental writers with a carefully
designed series of "earth awareness"
experiential exercises designed to expand students'
formal academic study with the kinds of immediate
personal experiences that will lead to the shaping of
sound environmental values and the encouragement of
proactive environmental leadership.
Carolyn Toben and her intern, Megan Olivia Lane, made
their initial visit to class on April 1 to introduce the
students to Timberlake Farm, to explain the "Earth
Awareness" pedagogy, based on the work of nature
educator Joseph Cornell, and to outline the "Next
Generation" Nature Awareness Program and the role of
"Earth Guides" as student volunteers. Students
subsequently arranged to visit Timberlake Farm for a
personal orientation program and to schedule two separate
"solo" visits when they would have time to walk
the trails of Timberlake and complete a set of earth
awareness worksheets and exercises designed by Joseph
Cornell along with an assignment to integrate the works
of American Environmental Writers with their own
experiences at Timberlake Farm. Students fit their visits
into their schedules as time permitted, so completing
this work took most of April. When all of the students
had completed their solo work, the entire class visited
the Tree House at Timberlake Farm on May 6, when Carolyn
ran a specially designed version of her "Present
Moment, Magic Moment" workshop for the entire
class.
Growing out of this collaborative experience, I believe
that we have planted the seeds of future environmental
leadership in the group. All of the eighteen students in
the seminar reported a substantially increased
environmental awareness through the combination of
academic and experiential learning made possible by the
Pericles Grant. One of the students, a graduating
journalism major, intends to make environmental
journalism a focus of her future career. Two other
students are entering law school and intend to focus on
environmental law. Another student, a junior
communication/film major, wants to make a documentary on
the air pollution problems in her native Southern
Applachian mountain region. Several students hope to
serve as "Earth Guide" volunteers at Timberlake
Farm next year. Based on our experiences this year, I
believe that our Pericles grant is worthy of being
refunded and that we could design an even better program
next year based on our first year's experiences in
working with students to coordinate their schedules and
free time with the program at Timberlake.
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