Thursday, November 15, 2012

Have I told you how much I love my classes?

Well, I'll tell you again!

By now, you probably know that Nature and Outdoor Writing has been my favorite class this semester. One reason for this is simply that the content of the course matches my interests perfectly. It's an MJD (my journalism major) elective, as well as an elective for Environmental Studies and Creative Writing minors. We read works from all kinds of environmental authors, ranging from Leopold to Suburban Safari's Hannah Holmes. We also get to write our own pieces, including memoir-like accounts of our own experiences as well as creative natural history articles that incorporate research.

Basically, it's the perfect class for me because it's a crossroads of my major and minors. I'm always finding connections between my classes (for example, 3 out of my 4 classes this semsester have discussed the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone) but this one takes the cake!

It's also just a really fun course, and Professor Sultze organizes some really cool activities for us. At the beginning of the semester when it was warmer, we had class outside pretty often. This was also the class that had the field trip to Burlington's bike path where I rode a tandem bike for the first time. Yesterday's class was another awesome opportunity--we had a guest speaker from a local bird sanctuary come and show us some of the birds!

Here is an Eastern Screech Owl named Carson, after famous Environmental author Rachel Carson. She was a very "talkative" bird!

This is a Barred Owl, one of the most popular owls in many areas across the United States.

This is a red-tailed hawk, and the picture doesn't do her justice...her wing span was huge, and when she flapped her wings you could actually feel the wind from it on your face!

I just figured I would share that with you. This was definitely a highlight of my week! But, stay tuned for more MOVE news as well as other fun stuff to come!

Lauren

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