This past Friday, I had the pleasure of attending the Environmental Educators of North Carolina (EENC) Annual Conference at Catawba College in Salisbury, NC. The location was especially meaningful for me since Catawba is my alma mater and a standout in sustainability. It’s the first college in the Southeast and the thirteenth nationally to achieve carbon-neutral status. The conference took place at the Center for the Environment, sitting on 189 acres of preserved land which happens to be where I spent most of my time during my undergrad years.
The theme for this year’s conference was "Imagining Sustainable Futures," which fits perfectly with what we do at DGS. We strive to have students explore what sustainability looks like in their lives today and how they too are change makers not only in the future, but NOW.
The keynote speaker was Dr. Mercedes Quesada-Embid, one of my beloved professors. Her wisdom and knowledge are always inspiring and I will always jump at the opportunity to listen to her teach.
She began the time together by inviting us to reflect on the pressing challenges facing society today, such as overconsumption, information overload, greed, racial inequality, burnout, climate change, and disconnect. These are undeniably weighty issues that often leave us feeling overwhelmed about how to act.
However, she shifted our focus with the question: "What do we want to take into the future?" The responses centered around the idea of community—envisioning a future that includes and connects with others. No one imagined this future alone or achieving it by themselves.
But how do we get there? How do we get to the future that we imagine? To help us think about how to get to that future, Dr. Quesada-Embid introduced the concept of the 3 B’s:
Being: This represents who we are right now.
Becoming: This encompasses the actions we take to advance toward our goals.
Belonging: This is the state of finding community, feeling grounded, and being connected.
These stages are interconnected. The future is not a distant concept but something we are shaping today. As Arundhati Roy puts it, “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
We ended our time together with a grounding exercise, connecting us to our breath and what we are rooted in. It was a great reminder of the connection and strength we all have.
After attending many other sessions, I ended my day surrounded by the preserve where I once spent countless hours. It reminded me of how my passion for environmental education was born. Returning to that special place and reconnecting with the land and the people who helped foster my passion was incredibly meaningful. It took me back to the time before I graduated, when I was unsure of what was next for me—until I found DGS. It felt like the perfect fit, even though I couldn’t quite put into words what I was looking for.
It’s amazing how everything falls into place, and that’s what I hope to pass on to students. We have hope. We may not know what the future holds, but we can imagine it, and I believe the solutions we create will be far better than anything we could ever envision.
-Ms. Emily
This is a great message for our students, Emily. Thank you for sharing the experience with us and with our kiddos!