Christina Really likes people, she wants to make a difference in the world :)I am driven by a goal to make the world a more sustainable place economically, environmentally and socially. My mind was opened to the rest of the world when I was 16, a small town Michigan girl born and raised I was told we were moving to Switzerland. I graduated from high school in Zurich, and my life has never been the same. I began to realize that there is a whole world outside of my small state. I yearned to learn more, I traveled, explored, went to Africa, all over Europe, South and Central America and even studied sustainable development in Costa Rica. I began to grow a passion for sustainable development. I attended Boston College and majored in International Studies focused on development issues with a minor in Environmental Studies. Going back to Michigan, I realized that a whole system of thinking needed to be changed. People needed to think more broadly. I realized that many issues are international issues, such as climate change. I recently attended the Climate Change Conference in Milan as a representative for my workplace, Environmental Resources Trust. At the conference, I realized the difficulties of the formulation of an international treaty first hand. I was able to share my ideas with many people interested in sustainable development, and they were warmly received.
I have traveled and worked extensively, which has led to the formulation of many far-reaching ideas and goals. Although I have excitement and many complex and exciting ideas, I realize that these concepts are not yet fully formulated and refined. I would love the opportunity to vett my ideas against the bright young minds of the future and pull from the knowledge of the past. My goal for graduate study is to formulate a simple yet profound idea and find a way for it to catch on and make a real change. This has always been on the forefront of my mind and I have gotten involved in many relevant activities such as: working with sustainable energy in rural Africa with Solar Lights for Africa; promoting alternative energy and environmental sustainability at a corporate and governmental level with Environmental Resources Trust; building sustainable communities locally by leading a group of inner-city kids at Shaw EcoVillage; and building sustainable communities in Urubamba, Peru with ProPeru. However my work has led me to desire an ability to make a real impact. I would like to have more knowledge behind what I say and believe. My academic objectives and research interests are to study sustainability in developing and developed countries. I want to look at the economic, environmental and social aspects and compare different countries approaches to issues
Christina Keller on why the government is inefficient
I believe the government is inefficient because they force people to fill out these reports all the time to try to quantify things that are unquantifiable. They dole out money to projects but don?t set it up so that incentives take care of the work for them. I think they are doing a good job with things like their voluntary programs like Green Power Partners and other things but they need to somehow change the incentives so that they are really giving economic incentives to do the right thing
What would my ideas be for EcoVillage?
For a sustainable community garden I would help the kids get to know the neighborhood and we would go in to the communities and meet the local people and ask what diseases and health issues they have, then we would research the holistic cures to those diseases and then we would research the plants that would need to be planted
What would my idea be for a Fellowship?
Sustainable Environmental Development
What would my life ideas be?
Put environment and social values into capitalism, triple bottom line
I don?t like fundraising don?t think it should be that way, not funded out of peoples good intentions, should be part of the system. Also dads point fundraising makes people think environment and social is ALWAYs an extra cost, that is not always the case.
|
