Ever since Swarthmore made its way onto my college application list, I’ve known that it has a reputation for being full of socially-engaged students. Before coming to campus, I assumed that the majority of that engagement happened outside of the classroom, during the time that students devote to Swarthmore’s many clubs geared towards social justice. But during my first year, almost all of my classes had a tie-in to environmental or social justice issues. I’ve found that Swarthmore professors are really focused on tying their subject matter into real-world challenges and creating a safe intellectual space for truly meaningful discussions.
I expected my intro biology and chemistry classes to focus on learning fundamental concepts, but I was pleasantly surprised that Chem 10 (which was recently reimagined by Professors Riley and Graves in 2022) had a component in which core concepts were applied to issues of climate change. We also did a lab in which we removed metal pollutants from water samples our lab instructors had collected from a nearby river. Even our final exam focused on connections between chemistry and the environment. It was one of the most interesting (and dare I say fun?!?) tests I’ve ever taken. In Bio 1, we learned about DNA replication in relation to how genetically-modified golden rice is being engineered to combat malnourishment and we considered cellular respiration and CO2 emissions in relation to sustainable fuel sources. Much of Bio 2 was devoted to discussions of current conservation biology techniques and climate change.
I expected that my Environmental Justice in Latin America class would be centered on discussions of social justice, but I was pleasantly surprised that we went beyond discussing the issues and focused on techniques of actionable change. Several lectures focused on things that we as individuals can do to fight the issues of environmental injustice that often seem too overwhelming to approach. Then, as our final project for the course, we were asked to put our own personal strengths and interests into action to create a tangible resource to spread awareness of environmental justice issues. We also had to create a plan of how we would make it accessible and useful to the public. Using insights that I gained in my Intro to Education class, I designed a curriculum to facilitate high school students’ understanding of indigenous societies by uplifting indigenous voices. Other students in my class made artwork/museum exhibits, zines/fliers, and videos, and we spent the last two class sessions presenting our projects. I absolutely loved this final project— the fact that our professor gave us so much freedom and encouraged us to think about how we could apply our own skills to actionable social justice was both engaging and empowering.
I really appreciate how my Swarthmore classes have allowed me to learn about issues and have equipped me with the tools to take steps toward actionable change myself.