One Year of GSD Almost Finished…or Not? A Student’s Reflection

by Esther Rzewski

Before you ask, no, these are not trees from Warwick, but from Italy, where I am hoping to go back this summer holiday once this course is over… mmm, sunny Italy!

“Once this course is over”

Did I really just write that?

After 2/3 of the way into my first year on the Global Sustainable Development course, nothing could be clearer than that it cannot be over.  This course doesn’t exactly take over your life, but it easily could…

Some GSD students are very serious about implementing sustainability principles into their own way of living, and take the extra step to communicate it to the world to spread these ideas.

Furthermore, 4 students studying modules from GSD ran to become the Student Union (SU) Environment and Ethics officers, and a couple actually got elected! That’s another path some students have chosen to take to try implementing change within our own institution, the University of Warwick.

There was also the setting up of a GSD society – which has yet to be approved by the SU –  which ran events like the Remembrance Day for Lost Species event, in spirit of the human induced 6th mass extinction event. Even the creation of GLOBUS, written by and for GSD and Liberal Arts students also shows the commitment of our students to exercise their interest in GSD beyond strict academic work, and get it out to the world.

Yes, we struggle sometimes to get our stuff together, and getting one’s time-management right at university is like running a marathon whilst juggling – technically possible, but it takes an awful lot of practice and sometimes you’re up against a bloody steep hill at the same time! Yet, we still have managed to do so many great things, as INDIVIDUALS and as a COHORT, and the examples above are not representative.

Even if we get a few bruises and bumps on the way (remember that time when you dropped those juggling balls and they rolled under that thorny bush?), this marathon is really worth taking part in. Every little step forward counts! So, whilst you enjoy your Easter break, I hope that you will all keep going for yourself, for others and for the Planet, and keep GSD if not in your head, then at least in your heart.

That was cheesy. I know.