Blog

When my father was a young boy, he looked at the empty piece of land behind his home and decided to create something special. He planted water spinach (rau muống) and jute leaves (rau đay), staple crops in Vietnamese culture that grow year-round. My father tended to this garden everyday after school, investing in a space that not only nourished the ground beneath him, but also provided abundantly for his community. This small act of care bridged the gap between himself and the world around him, and later he would go on to sow seeds far beyond his home.   

(Eastern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica) pollinating a Purple Passionflower)

How alien! How mystical! Even more crazy, this video-game flower grows in your backyard!

Over two years ago, I nervously sat for an interview for a position I felt I had the potential for, but maybe not all the parts. Over two years ago, I did a deep dive on Sustainable Campus (SC) and studied every SC social media account like it was the night before a big exam.

Over the past year, I had the pleasure of serving as the Secretary of Sustainability in the Executive Cabinet of the Boisvert-Benn-King administration of FSU’s Student Government Association (SGA).

As the semester wraps up and my time as the Waste Reduction Coordinator at Sustainable Campus (SC) comes to a close, I wish to share my final parting thoughts and reminisce about the time I’ve spent in this position.

Hi all! Chris Watkins here, one of the Fall 2024 Sustainability Fellows. For the past five years I have been working toward my PhD in Poetry with a focus in Ecopoetics, Ecocriticism, and Gender Studies while working on my poetry collection The Drag Gospel of Queer Jesus, forthcoming with Saturnalia Books. Last fall, I had the pleasure of working with FSU Sustainable Campus facilitating a series of environmental writing workshops each of which focused on a different genre of environmental writing (nonfiction, fiction, and poetry).

The Campus as a Living Laboratory (Living Lab) program is an FSU Sustainable Campus initiative that pairs courses with community partners to give students practical and hands-on experience through multidisciplinary learning and applied research projects. Having a community partner to conduct research for and present final products to is beneficial on both ends, as evident through the Fall ‘24 Social Media Campaigns course.  

The Campus as a Living Laboratory program is an FSU Sustainable Campus initiative that aims to use the campus or Tallahassee community as a place of experiential learning that contributes to understanding or advancing sustainability. 

Partner: Tall Timbers Research Station & Land Conservancy

Project: Tall Timbers Solar Powered EV Charging Stations

Student: Jonus Goldstein

Introduction to the Sustainability Fellowship