Eco-Justice
By Fay Pappas ’09
“I believe that the first step to resolving conflict is to
understand it. To promote this understanding, four years ago I
established the FORUM, a nonpartisan public talk series devoted to
bringing all sides of a controversial issue to campus for an open
dialogue with the community. One of our events, a week-long forum on
social injustice, inspired Associate Professor of Environmental Studies
Joe Siry to approach me with the concept building on the FORUM and its
goals of education and social action by creating a course focused on
environmental issues.
Thus was born Eco-Justice 205J. Launched in fall 2008, the experimental
course was designed as a “boot camp” for activists that would provide
in-depth information about all sides of serious environmental issues and
then challenge students to put that knowledge to use to affect
meaningful change. Students would be divided into teams, each tackling a
particular issue by organizing a forum to discuss the topic and then
immersing themselves in a related case of social injustice with the goal
of helping to solve it.
Eco-Justice surpassed all of our expectations. After investigating with
my six-person team the plight of uninsured ex-farm workers around Lake
Apopka, Florida’s most polluted body of water, I was profoundly changed
by the social injustice I came across. The community forum we organized
to bring this injustice out into the open attracted the attention of
local politicians and the ACLU. We went on to establish an internship
for students at the Apopka Farmworkers Association and raise nearly
$1700 in 10 days to provide 196 farm-worker families Thanksgiving
turkeys. And our efforts are continuing: Projects to provide free dental
checkups, expand a community health clinic, and even arrange a baby
shower for expecting farm workers are in the works—all this after the
class has officially ended. Due to the course’s success, a second course
on advocacy is being offered this spring.
What’s truly incredible about this “experiment” in social
entrepreneurship on campus is that the “Farm Worker Group” was just one
of four amazing teams. The others took on the pressing issues of water
scarcity, equal rights in education, and global warming. In August of
2008, 21 students, half of whom were only freshmen, didn’t know what to
expect from this “unique” course for which they had registered. By
December, we had not only used our education to empower others, but had
shown ourselves that we have the power to do things we never thought
possible. Now that is real hope for the future.”
Fay O. Pappas is a senior in the Honors Degree Program majoring in
political science and minoring in creative writing. In addition to
launching the FORUM, she co-founded the Rollins Undergraduate Research
Journal, and oversaw a revival of the Brushing Art & Literary
Journal, serving as its editor-in-chief. A 2008 national finalist for
the Harry S. Truman Scholarship for public service, Pappas is currently a
fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency in Washington,
D.C. and an active member of the Roosevelt Institution, the nation’s
first student-run think-tank, where she serves on the editorial board
and edits “The Policy Farm Team” blog. She hopes to attend the
University of Virginia School of Law in the fall.
