Gigi Berardi reads about the importance of making sane food choices—yes, whole, informed, sustainable, and experience are all part of the consideration, but we also need self-compassion. Experience, practical wisdom, and practical knowledge contribute to good food choices. In these times, however, being resilient is just as important. This is true not only for our food choices, but our college choices.
Gigi vlogged on the following in a recent post, an article that suggests students are looking for good value for money in this age-of-online—regional state-funded universities seem a logical choice: Will colleges and universities do the right thing
Gigi sees compassion, too, at least at the state university at which she works—Western Washington University. The university has been commended for a flexible grading policy, but will this be next, an A for every student?
Maybe. In the past month, the need for practical wisdom and compassion has never been greater. And she takes this opportunity to give a shout out to her colleagues who are champions of equity, experiential education, and practical wisdom—Ryan Larson, Director of Education Abroad, for one.
It’s strong, ethical individuals such as Ryan, doing the right thing in universities, that gets cultural and sustainability work done. Shout out, too, to a small college’s partisan Board of Directors that transcended petty arguments and biases to make Allegheny College carbon neutral—one of only a handful of colleges in the United States. Allegheny also claims the first department of Environmental Sciences in the early 1980s—doing the right thing even then. She is proud to be part of that initiative (as the first hire), and just as proud to be part of Education Abroad at Western today.
Read: Allegheny College is carbon-neutral
As Gigi writes in FoodWISE, “I believe it is possible to live a FoodWISE life [and an ethical, compassionate, sustainable one]. At least try, because that is where we need to be. If everyone is trying, much of the time, then we are going to get there.” Indeed, we are all in this together.