This assignment has three sections: Purposes, Questions for Reflection, and Writing Directions. Please read all of these sections before you begin writing.
Purposes
Questions for Reflection
Reflect on the following questions and consider the significant events and people that have influenced your understandings of the environment, race, class, gender, and ethnicity.
1) Describe yourself, including your ethnic, class, and/or cultural background. What aspects of your identity are most important to you and why? (required part of the essay)
2) How did you come to be interested in the environment and natural resources? What people, places, and/or experiences have been important to you in developing this interest? (required part of the essay)
The ideas in items 3,4, and 5 are prompts to think about what you might include in your essay. You are NOT required to address ALL of these items. Think about which of these are important, whether there are other experiences that have been more important, and select the material you would like to address in your essay from that which is most important in your experience.
3) Many of you are moving to Burlington, VT for the first time. How does this place compare to where you grew up? In what sense to you feel at home and/or out of place?
4) Think about your experience in the past and consider how your attitudes toward people who differ from you have been formed and influenced:
a) Early memories: What are your earliest recollections of people of other races or sexual preference? How have these people influenced you to be the person you are today? Evaluate the impact of these encounters and what you made of them as a young person.
b) Significant People: How have your parents and other relatives or close friends influenced your ideas about racism and sexism? How has your particular ancestry, family history, and interaction with others affected how you think about race and environment issues?
c) School: What events at school have been important in affecting your attitudes towards people of different races and economic classes? In elementary school? High school? College?
d) Work: In the jobs you have held, how have your co-workers or perhaps the customers affected your attitudes towards people of different races and economic classes? Have you experienced situations of conflict with people of different opinions from you? How did you address the conflict?
e) Religion/Spirituality: If you were raised with a religious/spiritual tradition, did it promote a particular orientation toward women and men, people of different races or sexual preference? How did you feel about the church's position?
5) Some might suggest that silence is a significant barrier to addressing societal issues related to differences in race, class, gender, and ethnicity. That is, well-intentioned people do not speak up when they see an injustice occurring. Have you been silent in the past? If so, why? If not, why not? How do you think silence might contribute to conflicts associated with race, class, gender, and ethnicity in environmental and natural resource issues?
Writing Directions
Please complete the following writing assignments:
Write:
(a) a draft outline for your Autobiographical Essay that incorporates these experiences. Include at the beginning of this outline a brief introductory section about your ethnic, class, and/or cultural background.
(b) a 1 to 2 page reflective writing on one experience or idea that you have included in your outline.
Staple together your outline and reflective writing.