Sustainability can refer to different things in different situations. The College’s Office of Sustainability has taught these two students that sustainability isn’t something one person, one community, one solution can make happen. Rather, it’s something that connects us all.
by Britton Holmes ’15 and Kelsey Deporte ’15
My time at the College has been a series of amazing opportunities, each one leading me to the next.
The first was an internship I got my freshman year with the Pulsera Project, a Charleston-based organization that connects artisan cooperatives, primarily in Nicaragua and Guatemala, with students in the United States. This internship introduced me to the idea of social sustainability and helped me understand the importance of community. When one of the Pulsera Project’s founders, Chris Howell ’11, encouraged me to study abroad with the College’s program in Havana, Cuba, it also led me to my next great opportunity.
My study abroad in Cuba was life changing. There, I witnessed the power of community firsthand. I saw how the Cubans have banded together over the past 50 years to overcome obstacles like political confinement and near famine. Despite it all, the Cuban people still manage to love and dance and enjoy life to its fullest extent.
During that spring 2014 semester in Cuba, I also experienced a strong sense of community myself: My fellow classmates and I went from being strangers to something like family as we struggled and laughed through the daily hardships of life abroad. We helped each other through our study abroad – and taught each other a few things that we’d bring back home with us.
Two of these classmates, for example, encouraged me to apply to work with them in the Office of Sustainability back at the College of Charleston. When I started working there that summer, I had no idea how the office would shape me into the person I am today.
In the Office of Sustainability, one opportunity led to another. I worked to expand the diversity of the office’s events and initiatives through communications and presented my work on a panel at a national sustainability conference. I also reconnected with nature by learning more about sustainable agriculture. I had gone to take pictures for Synergies, the office’s online publication, at an organic practice farm just outside of Charleston, and after my assignment, I ended up spending a summer picking blueberries and tending bees. This newfound interest in sustainable farming gave me the opportunity to lead the office’s Garden Apprenticeship Program. Most importantly, I found a strong community of determined and caring individuals who would help me find myself and my place at the College of Charleston.
The Office of Sustainability takes in students who have big ideas and provides them a platform to grow as students, leaders and people – to change their worlds and to make a positive impact in their communities. And for me, that’s what sustainability is really all about: seeing the value in everything around you – the people, the communities, the systems, the ecosystems – and feeling connected to it and committing yourself and your life to making it better. As Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
I’m just happy that the College of Charleston has given me the opportunity to do so.
– Britton Holmes
When I graduated from high school, I felt I was moving on to something beyond just secondary school. Graduation, for me, meant being free of restraints, being on my own to discover, learn and become the change I wanted to see in the world. I had a passion for creative social change and sustainability – and I was excited to let that guide me.
I admit, I got a little lost and forgot what was truly important to me when I first arrived at the College of Charleston. After a rough first year of classes and losing my scholarship, I started working in the food and beverage industry to sustain myself. Working 35-hour weeks made pulling my grades up a challenge, and most nights I came home feeling unfulfilled, broken down and alienated.
I had to change.
Searching within, I discovered a desire to actively create substantial change within society. So, my junior year I drove to Pittsburgh with two other CofC students and attended a national environmental conference and my first public demonstration. These events inspired me to develop an independent study to reduce the amount of materials sent to landfills when students move out of residence halls. For this project, I worked closely with four other students and the Office of Sustainability. These connections ultimately led me to working in the Office of Sustainability for my five remaining semesters at the College of Charleston.
Working in the Office of Sustainability helped push me out of my comfort zone. It allowed me room to create my own project and see it through. It was the first time I had ever truly believed in myself and in the work I was doing. It was the first time I felt a sense of belonging in Charleston. I became invested in the Charleston community beyond the campus and the well-being of the community as a whole.
I also became involved with the local nonprofit Girls Rock Charleston, which seeks to empower girls and trans youth through music education, do-it-yourself media and creative collaboration. At the same time, my coursework in sociology and environmental studies took a deeper focus into social justice issues, both of which connected to my work in the Office of Sustainability. Through my experiences with Girls Rock Charleston and my coursework, I started to see that social issues and sustainability are profoundly connected. Sustainability is not just about recycling or saving energy, it’s a way of life that greatly impacts the well-being of a whole society.
These moments together taught me that simply knowing about the symptoms that cause environmental issues is not enough: Taking action and responsibility for our community’s well-being is how positive change will be made.
During my time with the Office of Sustainability, I developed residence life programming that still remains today; hosted workshops that brought students, faculty, staff and members of the community together; designed graphics that were published on campus and online; and presented at a national conference for sustainability in higher education. In my last semester, my work came full circle when I got to assist new interns in creating their foundations of sustainability with projects they are implementing throughout the community.
The Office of Sustainability provided a space for me to work on social justice issues, to meet some of my closest peers, work alongside incredible individuals, become a leader and make changes that could directly impact the College community.
For me, sustainability is not just about preserving resources for future generations. It’s about improving the current. It’s about restructuring and restoring our systems and seeking justice for all individuals. It’s about reconnecting with our peers and the very environment we inhabit – seeing the value in the intangible things and finding common ground with those different from us. After all, it is that very common ground that we all share together.
– Kelsey Deporte
Britton Holmes ’15 (international business and political science)
and Kelsey Deporte ’15 (sociology) graduated in December.
Illustration by Nick Sadek
