Revision as of 11:03, 13 April 2012

About Me

matteak@gmail.com 607.227.7571

I am a transfer student from Ithaca, New York in my second year at Evergreen. My first year I studied at Sarah Lawrence College, outside NYC. It wasn't my favorite place so I went back home and started working in a Thai restaurant. Over the next two years I became very passionate about food on every level; access, nutritional value, economic components, environmental costs, as well as cooking and eating good fresh food. In many ways, food has acted as a glue in my life; connecting me with family, friends, and myself.

I have focused on a number of different areas at Evergreen including linguistics, writing, and education. I have felt weary about committing to one field of study because I am not convinced that there will be a job at the end of the long haul. Instead I decided to focus on educating myself as an individual, investing into my own intelligence because that is something that cannot be lost or appropriated. I feel a strong drive to understand the human condition at this point in time, as well as historically, so that I might be a part of change. I have a strong faith in people's ability to innovate and work together in a civicly intelligent way.

Interests

• Sustainable Agriculture
• Food Access and Quality
• Politics
• Economics
• Art for Social Change
• Linguistics

Thoughts on Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives that are important to me are:

• Building leadership/facilitation skills
• Developing capacity to do in-depth research
• Participating in a community of learners
• Increased understanding of policy-making
• Useing existing frameworks to build the capacity to develop new ones

Issues I'm Interested In

Contributions