Sheltering "Sustainable Development" habit

          It has been about two week ago since I last blogged. It had been very hectic with the first sets of four o'clock  Now, hopefully, everything will settle down till Spring Break. In addition, there isn't too much going on with Haiti group and unfortunately we haven't make a lot of progress. (This is expected, change does not happen overnight!)

          For this blog entry, I would like to address one of the topic for video project that Professor Orrs assigned. My topic is "Pick something you have learned this semester- either about yourself or someone/something else and talk about what it is, how you learned it, and how it may have influence you.".

          Although we may not have a neat notebook to show our parents that this is what we have learned through Sustainable Development class; although there may not be solid proof through tests and quizzes to show our result, I felt that I have gain a more mature viewpoint of what sustainable development is and explore what it takes to help without doing damages. Most importantly, I learned to shelter a new habit of "Sustainable Development".

This picture is a representation of what we learned can be
applied in more than one direction.

          I can ramble on the negativity of volunteer tourism, or I can talk about Haiti's economic framework or policy, but these are specific topics that I cannot apply "sideways". When asked about learning, I think of a skill-sets, or a habit that can be carried on beyond this class and may still have influence on me after the completion of this class, in a way I can apply this skills elsewhere or "sideways".

           It strikes me one night while I was talking to one of my friend. He asked what is sustainable development to me, how does it goes along with your career. It was just a casual conversation, so I had no pressure to answer. But I did, after pondering about it for a while. It goes along the lines of these. I really do not think necessarily I will go build a biosand filter or build shelter in underdeveloped nations. I am not sure if I will be hands-on or directly involved in sustainable development. Perhaps I will be an industrial engineering at a company, when asked to implement a project and considering its alternative, I will apply my habit of SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT in choosing a project that will be less harmful to the environment and its community. Sustainable development is a huge part of Corporate Social Responsibility. A company will not thrive without a healthy community. The answer really struck me and I am pleasantly surprised by my own answer. Prior, I did not really think of sustainable development beyond physically travelling to countries to help others. Perhaps sustainable development needs to be implemented in our own country and in our own backyard as well.

          Hence, I strongly suggest that while we are narrowly focus in our specific project, take a step back and look at the skill-sets we have learned and the habit we developed. Evaluate them and think of how we can apply them in a broader perspective. Chances are when we all graduate, we will not be fortunate enough to keep working with the country or the NGO, but we will still have all the skills and habit that we have learned.



The term "applying sideway" originated from a blog by MIT admission Here is his blog. http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways