Introducing Jade
Hallo!
My name is Jade and I am a junior here at Babson. I am from Ridgewood, New Jersey. I do not have a specific concentration at Babson, but my main academic interests are in the subject areas of marketing, economics, and social responsibility. Outside of school, some of my hobbies include travel, photography, baking, and biking.
At Babson, I am an intern at the Sustainability Office alongside being a Peer Tutor for Principles of Microeconomics, hence my interest in this course that focuses on economics and sustainable development. A question that comes up often at the Sustainability Office is how to most effectively intersect economic, social, cultural, and environmental forces to cultivate sustainable development. This course directly draws on this intersection under a broader and more complex political context which motivated me to apply to this program to further explore this question.
What I intrigues me the most about the prospect of this course is that it not only focuses on environmental sustainability but also takes a holistic approach to sustainable development, placing great emphasis on the political and economic factors that dictate its development as well. I think that the social sustainability module will allow us to explore some of those non-environmental factors that should be highly regarded when pursuing sustainable development, and so I am most looking forward to that topic. It should also be really interesting to examine how deterministic the political structure of Germany is in cultivating their approach to sustainability.
When we go to Germany, I am most looking forward to visiting Berlin. My dad’s side of the family is from far northeast Germany (a little bit outside of Berlin), and so I am excited to connect what I see in person with some of my family history that my Grandma has told me. In addition, Berlin has a very rich and complex history in general, which I think will be eye-opening to some of Germany’s past struggles and how its formed their nation today. I am also very excited to explore Stuttgart as it is a hub for Germany’s automotive industry. As mentioned before, I love to travel and thus I love cultural exchange, so in general, I am looking forward to familiarizing myself with Germany, its language, people, food, and natural beauty of the country over the next few months.
Looking forward to this semester!
Jade
