Learning - I am in grad school through the end of 2024 and just started a part time role at a non-profit working on development at the community level. I am using this year as a year focused on learning and development and gleaning knowledge and experience on design + development as it relates to sustainability specifically but also regenerative design + development.

I see myself as an idea person and a facilitator. Less of the implementation. Putting enough pieces together but then needing the help of others to execute or to bring over the finish line.

I want to learn how to work in collaboration with people to bring big ideas to life. And to learn how to be part of the process rather than an owner.

Similar to the above, I am specifically interested in learning how to collaborate with others. I have always been fairly independent and am more comfortable doing the work alone than in partnership. Yet, it is always so much more fun and rewarding when building together.

In my dreams I want to build a boutique hotel that encompasses both regenerative design but also is really about community and connection and that preserves and celebrates place.

Currently making the step through taking a year and a half "off" to invest fully in grad school and supplement it with extra learning such as this program. I realize that if I am ever going to be able to pursue my ultimate goals, I had a lot of growth and development to do and needed to prioritize more specific and intentional skills and knowledge.

I have only recently been enamored with permaculture - having not understood what it was until last year really. At that point, it led me to sustainability and now to here. I feel like it was putting into words what I had a vague idea of prior to. Prior, Wendell Berry was a primary thinker. The first time I read one of his books, it felt like I found an author, a thinker, who could capture what was in my heart and help translate it into my head.

Gosh - this needs a little more contemplation than I will be able to do justice to in this brief space and moment. Excellent question to think deeper about. To just answer off the cuff, I think that humans were created in the image of God and were given the role to cultivate and be stewards of this earth we live on. I think it is my responsibility, and that of humans, to use my specific giftedness to care for what I have been given in this specific place and time in life. I believe we are to use that which we are to play a role in the greater picture and whole of this earth and through all of time. We are responsible to live according to how we were designed for the benefit of those we are in community with. Yet, often that can get lost in the busyness of life and the obligations of the day. Having space to step back and reflect on why I am alive and here in this moment and who is in my life and where I am from and the place I live helps to guide the intention of my life. How to live in connection with others.