在校园里啜饮着糖枫的新鲜汁液. 在阿尔弗诺家的院子里敲打着一只独木舟. Taking in the sights, sounds and scents of the new campus greenhouse. 《vns6060威尼斯城官网》, 博士学位, an assistant professor of education and director of special education programs in the School of Professional Studies, 大自然是最好的教室.
“这里有宝藏。, 尤其是在城市地区, 这需要被观察并保持开放，让更多的人进入,他说.
Stolen sees himself as one of many members of the ecosystem of sustainability work at vnsr威尼斯城官网登入. 然而，每当校园里出现新的环保倡议时, 被盗不远了, whether he’s working with colleagues to design a native plant garden at a neighborhood middle school or stocking a bike repair toolbox that students can check out from the vnsr威尼斯城官网登入 library or helping to launch a new certificate program to train teachers for nature-based preschools.
“还有很多人在做这件事, 他们做了很多,Stolen说。, who serves on the vnsr威尼斯城官网登入 Commits to Sustainability (ACTS) Committee. “I’m really just jumping in on existing things and hopefully adding some value.”
一生热爱大自然
我在威斯康辛州贝赛德长大., Stolen explored the woods and creek near his home every chance he got, 他喜欢露营, 钓鱼和打猎. 作为一个中学生, 他的灵感来自学校赞助的户外活动, 包括一次背包旅行, 参观明尼苏达州的边界水域, 从圣. 路易斯到密尔沃基.
He strived to give his own students nature-based experiences during his 12 years of teaching bilingual special education in Milwaukee Public Schools. 他带孩子们去钓鱼、划独木舟，并与“成长力量”合作, Sweet Water Organics and the Urban Ecology Center to build growing and aquaponic systems with his students.
在他拿到城市教育博士学位之后, 一个以前的学生劝他去看看阿尔弗诺. 出于好奇，他开始研究阿尔维诺的方济各会出身. “St. 弗朗西斯很自然，”他意识到. It was one of just many signs that vnsr威尼斯城官网登入 was the right place to plant himself.
当他第一次参观校园时, 他欣赏雨花园, 生态威尔士和绿色屋顶, 他想知道:“为什么阿尔弗诺没有温室??他开始和同事讨论这个想法, 包括丽贝卡·克林格, 博士学位, 生物学助理教授, 和詹妮弗·约翰逊, 博士学位, associate professor of environmental science and creator of the bioswales. He was ecstatic when the idea got the seed funding it needed to grow.
“I’m just grateful to be a part of it and have access to it,他说 of the vnsr威尼斯城官网登入温室. “I want to make it a learning laboratory so that education students can create more hands-on experiences and use it as like an educational lab. We can have lessons in the greenhouse and talk about how we can use plantings and environmental sustainability in our teaching practices.”
参与的学生
甚至在温室开放之前, Stolen looked for other ways to connect his vnsr威尼斯城官网登入 students to nature. One of his favorite springtime rituals is to show students how to tap a tree and sip sap together. “这真的很有趣, engaging experience for everybody to see the bounties of nature and to experience it together,他说. He has also shown education students how they can use tree-tapping as a science lesson or an extension of a story in their own future classrooms. “If you actually do the thing that you’re reading about, comprehension is so much deeper,” he notes.
Stolen previously worked for a nonprofit as a boat-building instructor, and he’s brought that experience to his K-12 and vnsr威尼斯城官网登入 students as well. “Boat building is another engaging way to do hands-on learning that’s nature based,” he explains. 在vnsr威尼斯城官网登入, 他与历史教授约翰·萨瓦吉安合作, 博士学位, 教授土著研究, 还有琳达·约翰逊·戴尼克和艺术系的其他人. 而不是让它成为正式课程的一部分, they opted to do it out in the courtyard “so anybody who wants to walk by and swing a hammer or use a saw can,斯泰伦解释道. Now vnsr威尼斯城官网登入 has two beautiful canoes, and Stolen plans to build a third later this spring. 这些船可供学生使用, 教职员工, and Stolen hopes people consider using them in river cleanup efforts.
“It’s surprising how many people have not accessed waterways in Milwaukee,他说. “我们周围有这么多的水，这是我们的财富, 所以让更多的人出海是我个人的热情所在.”
Q&雷神被偷
什么时候，为什么你决定成为一名教师?
“I made the decision to be a teacher as I was living as a ski bum in Aspen, Colo. 滑雪棒极了，但后来我读了 快餐之国, and it made me realize it was kind of a selfish lifestyle of pure joy and fun for the 22- or 23-year-old that I was at the time. I wanted to have a little more purpose in life aside from just enjoying myself, so I went back to get my teaching certificate and then started teaching at Milwaukee Public Schools. I taught as a bilingual special educator in Milwaukee schools for 12 years.”
As a professor at a women’s college, what do you hope to empower your students to achieve?
“Since I work in the education department and I still value education, both as an instructor at vnsr威尼斯城官网登入 and as somebody who’s still involved with Milwaukee Public Schools and other K-12 systems, I hope to empower our students to relish the teaching experience to make significant differences in their students’ lives. I hope to broaden access to education to more students through project-based learning and experiential education. 如果我能从可持续发展的角度出发, 比如生态/环境片, 这是额外的好处.”
你从阿尔弗诺学生那里学到了什么?
“一切都. 这真是一个美妙的地方. 我的工作，我的存在，都是因为一个阿尔弗诺的学生. 当时, I was an adjunct instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and UW-Whitewater, 我也没注意到阿尔弗诺. A former student of mine reached out to let me know how she was doing, 她告诉我一个叫阿尔弗诺的好地方, 我非常喜欢这个地方. And so I came to visit her and had coffee at the Inferno and started doing more research. And all of a sudden, I fell in love with vnsr威尼斯城官网登入 and the people here. 学生们的包容性不断给我留下深刻印象, 他们是进步的和支持的, how much they advocate for one another and the general good of the population. I’m continually learning from students on all sorts of different levels. I really, really appreciate being here and being part of that system. 阿尔维诺是一个神奇的地方，也是一种神奇的经历.”
