2008 Woodie Awards
The great outdoors is in her blood
Kelly Truong
Issue date: 5/12/08 Section: Features
Stuck to the side of Kristin Sullivan's filing cabinet is a small poster featuring two photos of her students hiking, heading further into the Santa Cruz Mountains. "Don't worry, Mrs. Sullivan ..." the handwritten caption beneath one photo reads. Underneath the other: "We're going toward sustainability!"
It's the perfect decoration for the office of someone who has been working toward environmental sustainability for 25 years, since her first environmental studies class as an undergraduate at San Jose State University. According to Sullivan, that class changed her life.
"Environmental studies is really a combination of social and environmental issues," she said. "I got drawn into it as a result of that class ... I could see what we humans were doing to the planet. I think we really, as humans, need to rethink who we are and how we behave on the planet."
Interacting with nature is one of Sullivan's passions in life. She loved being outdoors as a child and tries to pass that on to her students now.
"[In] almost every one of our classes, we get students outside," she said. "When students get outside, they really get the connection between who we are and the nature that is there. I think we've lost that connection in the United States."
The photos on her filing cabinet are only two snapshots of the outings Sullivan has planned with her students. "We take our different classes to different places," she said, naimg various other locations she has traveled to with students: Yosemite Park, Hidden Villa and Gazos Creek.
She deplores the fact that, according to studies, people now spend 90 percent of their days indoors, but she has taken extraordinary steps to make her time indoors as pleasant as possible.
She and her husband have converted their straw bale home into a solar house, an idea she inherited from her own environmental studies professor, Frank Schiavo. Their brochure, titled "Solar Straw Bale Sustainability Resources" says, "This home provides us with happiness, comfort and peace every day of the year." In the last year and a half, approximately 2,000 people have toured her house.
Teaching is what Sullivan does best. It's the family profession; both of her parents were teachers. "I think it's in my blood!" she said. "I think that empowering and motivating people is the biggest thing. That's what my emphasis is, teaching people that it's possible to make change."
Her message to her students is simple but direct. "There is hope," she said. "Get yourself motivated, get out there and make change."
It's the perfect decoration for the office of someone who has been working toward environmental sustainability for 25 years, since her first environmental studies class as an undergraduate at San Jose State University. According to Sullivan, that class changed her life.
"Environmental studies is really a combination of social and environmental issues," she said. "I got drawn into it as a result of that class ... I could see what we humans were doing to the planet. I think we really, as humans, need to rethink who we are and how we behave on the planet."
Interacting with nature is one of Sullivan's passions in life. She loved being outdoors as a child and tries to pass that on to her students now.
"[In] almost every one of our classes, we get students outside," she said. "When students get outside, they really get the connection between who we are and the nature that is there. I think we've lost that connection in the United States."
The photos on her filing cabinet are only two snapshots of the outings Sullivan has planned with her students. "We take our different classes to different places," she said, naimg various other locations she has traveled to with students: Yosemite Park, Hidden Villa and Gazos Creek.
She deplores the fact that, according to studies, people now spend 90 percent of their days indoors, but she has taken extraordinary steps to make her time indoors as pleasant as possible.
She and her husband have converted their straw bale home into a solar house, an idea she inherited from her own environmental studies professor, Frank Schiavo. Their brochure, titled "Solar Straw Bale Sustainability Resources" says, "This home provides us with happiness, comfort and peace every day of the year." In the last year and a half, approximately 2,000 people have toured her house.
Teaching is what Sullivan does best. It's the family profession; both of her parents were teachers. "I think it's in my blood!" she said. "I think that empowering and motivating people is the biggest thing. That's what my emphasis is, teaching people that it's possible to make change."
Her message to her students is simple but direct. "There is hope," she said. "Get yourself motivated, get out there and make change."
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