Sustainability Pathways students spent 11 weeks working and learning in the Methow Valley.
WWU students explore careers while making a difference
Eighteen college students recently completed a summer-long program of work and study in the Methow Valley. Sustainability Pathways is a fellowship program of Western Washington University’s Sustainability Engagement Institute, intended to provide participants with practical experience, expose them to sustainability-related livelihoods, and help them develop systems-thinking skills — all while supporting local organizations.
This year’s fellows are the fourth cohort to participate in the place-based learning program. Sustainability Pathways director Joshua Porter has chosen to work in the Methow Valley in part to bring WWU’s resources and opportunities to an area without a four-year university. Key to the experience is understanding the Methow Valley’s social and cultural setting, as well as the bio-physical environment.
The students’ orientation includes meeting with representatives of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and learning to understand tribal sovereignty and the relationship between sustainability work and tribal interests.
Each student’s fellowship provided for a paid practicum through which the student spent three days a week working for a local organization. In addition, participants completed a sustainability planning course, performed community service, lived and made connections in the community, and spent time together as a group, forging an interdisciplinary network and enriching their understanding of the many facets of sustainability.
The students who worked for government and nonprofit organizations were also enrolled as AmeriCorps Civic Leadership and Engagement volunteers; the AmeriCorps stipends they receive can be used to offset the cost of tuition for the sustainability planning course. In addition, seven of the students are earning Climate Leadership Certificates through the Sustainability Engagement Institute.
Building a cohort community is a key part of the program, said Porter, providing “a sense of connection and nurturing” that can be especially valuable to young people early in their professional journeys. This year’s cohort was “exceptionally tight-knit,” he said.
Including students from a mix of disciplines is intentional as well, said Porter. Bringing together students from fields like public health, recreation management, environmental science and journalism provides all of the participants with exposure to new ideas and skill sets and broadens everyone’s perspectives.
Classroom time
Students spent two afternoons a week on group projects as part of their sustainability planning studio course, working in teams of three or four to address sustainability questions and challenges in and around the Methow Valley. Each group project brings together students with different backgrounds, and synergies emerge as varied approaches are applied to real-world problems, said Porter.
This summer’s group projects were:
• Cultural Lands Case Studies — an evaluation of methods for returning full or partial control of land to the native people who have occupied it since time immemorial.
• Seeding Up Winthrop — a study of the feasibility of establishing a seed library in Winthrop to support community resilience and food security.
• Community Forest Case Studies — an evaluation of models for co-management and intergenerational learning on forest lands to support development of a management concept that reflects local interests.
• Family Health Centers (FHC) Emissions Reductions Report — identifying options for reducing pollution generated by FHC for the sake of both public health and the environment.
• Green Purchasing at FHC — a study of ways in which FHC could reduce waste generation and costs by changing purchasing practices.
The interactions fostered by the group projects and the cohort’s twice-weekly field trips support all of the students in learning to look more holistically at a variety of situations, helping them develop the skills to think in terms of the effects that decisions and actions will have on whole systems. The field trips are also an opportunity to complete the community service work that is a requirement of the AmeriCorps program.
Learning by doing
Most of the student practicums entailed working for local governments and nonprofits; a few students were employed by local businesses. The practicum experience gave students an opportunity to grapple with the real work of creating and maintaining a sustainable world. Unlike some internships, the practicums are not about “free labor and rote responsibilities,” said Porter. He looks for “supervisors who want to invest in mentorship,” he said. Employers provided meaningful work and supported skill development.
Students, for their part, were working to make life in the Methow and Okanogan valleys more socially, economically and ecologically sustainable, with jobs that included installing stream restoration structures, conducting field surveys, developing plans and implementation strategies, working directly with youth, and supporting local recycling projects.
Students were employed by nine nonprofits, four government agencies, the Methow Valley School District, and three local businesses.
While most jobs were Methow-based, three students worked in the Okanogan valley — one for the City of Okanogan and two for the Foundation for Youth Resiliency and Engagement in Omak. Several of the practicums built on work done by previous Sustainability Pathways fellows.
Reciprocity
Two students worked in local planning offices, and Porter highlighted those practicums as examples of the reciprocal nature of mentoring and “generational transmission” of knowledge and skills. Caton Coldicott, an urban planning major, worked on current and long-range planning for the Town of Twisp under the guidance of town planner Kurt Danison, and Megan Strom, an urban sustainability major, worked on Climate Action Plan implementation and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility planning for the Town of Winthrop’s planner, Rocklynn Culp.
Porter noted that Culp interned for Danison early in her career; both of the local planners have gone on to share their experience with a rising generation of professionals.
Danison said he appreciated having “such a smart young person with ambition” bringing “new ideas [and] his own way of looking at things” to the office. “He’s saved me a lot of work,” said Danison.
Coldicott praised the opportunity to work with Danison, saying it’s been “a very rare experience [to gain] so much practical experience so early in my career.” Reflecting on his practicum in the context of the Sustainability Pathways program as a whole, he said it “has been great to feel like you’re giving back to the community that’s giving so much.”
Culp spoke of using the same approach that Danison used when he showed her the ropes, providing assignments, working with her student employee to develop an approach, and then being available to answer questions while Strom figured out the details. “I want them to come out of it with some ownership,” she said.
“Having a mentor was something I really appreciated about being part of this program,” said Strom in an email. “I was able to learn so much about planning in a rural community and how they are trying to mitigate the effects of climate change,” she said. “Being present with Rocklynn as her mentee and shadowing her through meetings and her typical workdays was so much fun and a huge privilege.”
Sustaining the work
From agriculture to youth engagement, field biology to municipal planning, this year’s Sustainability Pathways students made a lasting contribution to Okanogan County’s future. Porter has already begun to lay plans for next year’s program.
Research and planning completed by the 2023 cohort may lead to implementation projects next year. Porter is particularly interested in involving local and tribal youth in the program, he said, and some likely candidates emerged this summer.
For more information about Sustainability Pathways, visit https://sustain.wwu.edu/pathways or contact Porter at Joshua.Porter@wwu.edu.
