Andrea Cohen
At the age of seventeen I moved out of my family home and into a college dormitory, my first experience at independent living. As a teenager I had a hazy and uncomfortable sense that I had yet find what connected me to the rest of the world. One weekend while rummaging through a basket of used books at a yard sale, I came across a 1975 edition of Frances Moore Lappé’s Diet for a Small Planet. Ironically, I bought the book because I thought it was a weight loss guide. It did not take long for me to realize that it was actually an exploration into the production of food in the United States, including the use (and abuse) of our natural resources, the environmental impact, and the inequitable distribution that contributes to hunger and malnutrition worldwide. By the last page of the book I was a vegetarian and on my way to finding the relationships that I instinctively longed for.
This experience taught me an unalterable and instrumental lesson: education creates change. Eating a vegetarian diet taught me to love animals, which in turn prompted me to become a mindful protector of the natural world around me. My path has had some twists and some turns, along with its fair share of dead ends, but in 2006 it brought me to the Institute for Humane Education website. While reading the description of the courses and understanding the mission of the organization I had high hopes to further my education at IHE. I began my M.Ed. course work in the fall of 2006 and over the last three years have gained not only a remarkable amount of practical knowledge, but also an astonishing degree of personal insight.
Through the eyes of humane education I have seen that I am not alone. Humane education has taught me that my actions as an individual are meaningful and, consequentially, my lifestyle choices can reflect great accountability. I eventually came to a poignant understanding of interconnectedness while studying human rights, environmental ethics, and animal welfare. Now, having graduated in June 2009, I am better equipped to make informed decisions guided by compassion and sustainability. Today, I have the confidence and capacity to question injustice when I witness it in action or in legislation. As a graduate of the Institute for Humane Education I can act as an individual while having the support of an entire community.
Although I am done with my classes, I will never stop being a student. I am currently employed in the field of social work as a vocational specialist. My job is to assist my clients in finding meaningful roles in the community through education, volunteering, and job placement. I am finding numerous ways to employ the principles of humane education and feel assured that these principles are deeply instilled in my actions on the job as well as a benefit to my interpersonal relationships and my function as an activist and advocate in my community.
March 16, 2010 - 2:00 pm | Location: University of Maine - Orono (100 Neville Hall)
Please join us for an inspiring talk with Zoe Weil at the University of Maine in Orono. Co-sponsored by the Peace Studies and Sociology departments. Learn about the ways in which your everyday choices, your work, your activism, and your volunteerism can do the most ...
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