One of the stated goals of Florida State College at Jacksonville is to "inspire students to a lifetime commitment to continued learning, informed civic engagement, ethical leadership, cultural appreciation, social responsibility and multicultural awareness in an interconnected world."
I perform the role of facilitator at FSCJ in helping my students enjoy the beauty and history of our region. In years past, I have coordinated a lecture series and taught courses on environmental preservation that allowed our students to make a meaningful impact on a local wilderness area. We have participated in beach clean-ups, worked with the state to map gopher tortoise habitats, and volunteered with the National Parks Service.
In my literature courses, we study Florida folklore and regional history. We've taken ghost tours of St. Augustine, the nation's oldest city, and Fernandina Beach. We have visited and written about the slave narratives of the Kingsley Plantation and studied the Florida writings of Zora Neale Hurston and Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
Henry David Thoreau once said that "in wilderness is the preservation of the World" (Callicott and Ybarra). I hope to embody this principle in my educational philosophy for dealing with my students and making our natural environment an important part of the curriculum.
