Posted on Wed, Jun 17, 2009
There are now two new and convenient ways you can contribute financially to Emerson College. PayPal and Standing Orders
- First, the college now has a PayPal account for easy on-line giving. Simply click on How to Donate under the Donations tab and follow the instructions.
- Second, a number of former students have expressed interest in making ongoing monthly contributions to the college. We now have a simple Standing Order Form you can download from the Donations section of the college website.
We are very encouraged that supporters wish to develop an income stream for the college which can be based on modest monthly contributions from alumni and friends. We hope you will consider using this new tool to express your support for Emerson College. Payments via cheque, bank transfer and credit card are available as always. See details on how to give under How to Donate.
Posted on Tue, Apr 07, 2009
The Certificate and Diploma Course in Biographical Counselling, run by the Biography and Social Development Trust in association with Emerson College has been accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy from March 2009.
Visit www.biographywork.org/ for more information
Posted on Thu, Mar 19, 2009
Rachel Carson made environmentalism respectable. Before Silent Spring, nearly all Americans believed that science was only a force for good. Carson’s work exposed the dark side of science. It showed that DDT and other chemicals we were using to enhance agricultural productivity were poisoning our lakes, rivers, oceans, and ourselves. Thanks to her, the wanton destruction of nature is no longer called progress.
In 1992, a panel of distinguished Americans declared Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring the most influential book of the past 50 years. This was one of the latest in a long line of tributes to a woman who almost single-handedly alerted Americans to the dark side of science in alliance with industrial society. She, herself, was a scientist.
It is important to remember how much controversy Silent Spring aroused when it was published in 1962. The pesticide industry tried to have the book suppressed and challenged its findings. The book remained on the bestseller list for months and remains in print now, 34 years later. Vice President Al Gore credits Carson’s work with prompting the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency though he points out that, for political reasons, the Agency has failed to live up to its promise. As Gore has said, Silent Spring helped him and millions of others to develop an environmental consciousness. Among other noteworthy elements of the book, it introduced the term ecosystem to the public.
Ironically and sadly, while this controversy was swirling around the book, the author was dying of cancer – a cancer that may have been caused by exposure to environmental carcinogens such as those she studied. She died in 1964. One measure of her influence may be seen in the fact that chemical industry sources are still passionately trying to convince people that she was wrong, that “man” can “control” nature through chemistry.
Click here to read about the Rachel Carson Centre that is being developed at Emerson College.
Rachel Carson was born on a farm in Springdale, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College), earned a Masters in Marine Biology at Johns Hopkins, taught Zoology at the University of Maryland, and took a job with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. While there, she wrote three books about the sea, which gave her the financial independence to quit her government job and begin the book that made her famous — and infamous.
Posted on Tue, Feb 10, 2009
At some point after having babies and raising children, most parents, particularly mothers, will start to feel that a change is required, some new challenge, something with other adults perhaps, something more mentally stimulating than the next nappy, or the next feed. The offspring might be three days, three months, three years or thirty but at some point I think there is a need to venture beyond the garden gate.
For me, this point was when my second daughter was six months old. Still breastfeeding, with an older child just over two, I was ready for some new challenges and new opportunities. I will happily admit that much as I enjoyed being a full time stay at home mum, I did wonder whether it was actually easier to go out to work than “work” at home. And do mothers work. It isn’t all sitting around in each other’s houses drinking coffee!
At this point I had a think about my past life – pre-children, pre-marriage even, and what I wanted to do next; I had worked on farms, but with a baby and a toddler, the idea of spending fi fteen hours a day on a tractor or trimming sheep’s feet really didn’t appeal anymore. What I needed was something flexible, home based, well paid and enjoyable. Thinking through what knowledge, skills, expertise you have and what interests you is essential – then how does this fit with a new role and being a working mum? If you need help with this then the network of Business Links is a good place to start.
With a background in agriculture the obvious answer for me was to re-train as a farm secretary. I enrolled on a distance learning course for farm secretaries, spent (not all that many) hours at the computer in the evenings and updated my skills, re-learned things from my pre-children life and became adept at spreadsheets, balance sheets, writing a business plan, livestock regulations and wheat varieties.
Once I started to venture beyond the garden gate, I picked up bits and pieces of work as and when it suited me, mostly through word of mouth, but also by being prepared to do any sort of administration whether it was marketing, data input, book keeping or organising courses for farmers. It was great to be meeting other adults, going “out”, being an individual again. It was also scary; used to proverbially hiding behind my children, I felt rather lost without them. However, most people I have met through re-training and my subsequent working life have been understanding and flexible when faced with the challenges presented by a working mum and in this respect I have been very lucky.
After a couple of years of doing a bit of this, and a bit of that, I now go out of the house, out to work on the mornings my children are at nursery and school and I enjoy the benefits of being employed, earning a salary, meeting people and being useful – with the added increase in self confidence, financial security and general wellbeing that this has brought. My children are very happy at nursery and school and the extra time they now spend away from me has been invaluable for the development of their social skills and in relating to other adults.
I now work at Emerson College and, on the days when I am at my desk in the college, I meet all kinds of people, with all kinds of backgrounds and interests, but they all have one thing in common – they want to LEARN. Learn anything sometimes, but learn and Emerson offers opportunities for everyone to do part-time, full-time, weekend and short courses whatever their interest – creative writing, agriculture, storytelling and a new part-time course called “Time for a Change” which does what it says on the tin. I am still learning, each term I try a different course or subject so after bread making was biodynamic agriculture, next Advent celebrations for children and then … who knows? But I will keep learning, keep working and enjoying the mental stimulation, adult interaction, the increase in self-confidence and disposable income and the opportunity to think beyond the garden gate.
Written by Rebecca Johns, Registrar at Emerson College
Published in ABC Magazine – Winter 2007
To download a copy of the article, please follow this link: Following a New Path - ABC Magazine, Winter 2007