Spotlight on Environmental Education
Rebecca Rodomsky
Manager and Education Specialist at a sustainable home furnishing store in Ithaca, New York–home green home.
1. Why are you focusing on EE in your career?
Education is the key to paradigm shifts. We are at a pivotal point in history where the pressures on the enviroment are outweighing human ingenuity. We are realizing that as dynamic and inventive as our species is, we are still subject to the limits of growth and production. I choose education and outreach as the method for awaking people to a deeper understanding of what is happening, where we are going wrong/right and the steps that need to be taken to ensure a healthy and productive relationship with the environment. In education is the possibility for understanding and thus hope that we can make smarter choices.
2. What is the most exciting and/or fulfilling aspect of being in the EE field or of being an environmental educator?
This field is broad and limitless. I enjoy how far reaching environmental education themes are and how pertinent they are to every aspect of life. As an environmental educator you can work in various fields and implement important and practical changes.
3. How has Antioch prepared you for what you’re doing now?
To date, Antioch is the best education I have received. I went back to graduate school to gain “life skills” that I could quickly turn around and implement. That is exactly the kind of education I received at Antioch. Learning how to work with others, researching to find answers to pressing questions, interacting with professionals in “real world” situations and discovering what most interests you and having the freedom to sink your teeth in. Antioch fills you with hope, not by painting an unrealistic picture, but with preparing you to make positive changes in your community, one small step at a time. Skills to do what you want to do successfully equates to hope.
4. What is your “environmental vice?”
I love where I live is a 30 minute commute to where I work. We live rurally so we can grow our own food and have space to roam, but does this outweigh the carbon footprint from my car? Probably not. I am working on riding my bike 1/2 to work and then catching a bus the rest of the way. As of yet, I have not made this transition. So my gas pumping car to drive to my “green job” is my biggest environmental vice. I am working on it!
