I have been writing for hours every day for the past few weeks. I am switching Ph.D. programs 

and will begin a Ph.D. in sustainability education at Prescott College in three weeks!! I am also 

applying for a Fulbright to teach in Ireland next year. I have had to be concise, clear and confident

with my message. Therefore, I have been spending a lot of time with my heart. The heart offers 

guidance and direction that I need to bring my passion to the planet. Wish me lots of Love as I 

enter the academic world. This is a little excerpt from my personal statement for Prescott.

As I sat with my twelve year old niece this summer and watched the pink sun set over the Colorado mountains I asked her, “How is school going for you?” She responded, “Boring..” When I inquired as to why, she explained, “We just sit at our desks and read textbooks. Then memorize what we have read, write it on our tests, and then forget it.” Our young people deserve more than this. They deserve an educational experience that delivers vitality and creativity. One that is not dead in the head, but alive in the body. Students are more than just the technical skills they are taught for their future vocations. We cannot simply leave out the heart and soul of education because we don’t know what to do with them. As educators, we hold the responsibility of educating the heart in partnership with the logical mind. Each one of us is a unique creation that longs to be of service on this planet. When we are educated wholly, body, mind, heart and soul, we tap into what sustains us. Many of us are sleepwalking and do not know the immense resources that live within us. If we are not educated towards the sustainable within, we search relentlessly for the sustainable outside of ourselves. We must push the boundaries of what sustainability means to education and to our lives. Sustainability begs the question, what sustains me? This question has guided my life for the past twenty years. Recovering from addiction as a young person, surviving a cancer diagnosis in my early twenties, birthing two children, and grieving the loss of my parents early on in my life, I have awakened, by necessity,  to what sustains me.  If I do not know what sustains me as a human being, how can I possibly cultivate good stewardship of the Earth when I myself am empty? The Latin root of sustain, sustinere, means to hold up.  Love, in the most mysterious and creative sense of the word, holds me up and frees me from looking outside of myself for safety and vitality. I know that it is not a bottle of alcohol, my parent’s opinion of me, or buying three new outfits, that will give me sustenance. When we turn to the largeness of this Love, we no longer look outward to fill ourselves up. We realize that the outward is a mirror that reflects the beauty that lives within us.