Together, We Can Be Unstoppable: How Your Environmental Activism Can Change the World

By: Laura Murphy

There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t feel the urgent need to change the systems that perpetuate environmental injustices. As a student who wants to make a difference, I wrestle with thoughts like, What can I do in the face of a huge challenge like climate change? Do my small efforts at activism even matter?

To learn more about how individuals like me can make a difference, I recently spoke with two leaders on DePaul University’s campus and a fellow student. Each of these conversations gave me a clear takeaway about activism and helped me to better see the power that we, as students, can have.

Takeaway 1: Collaborate With and Uplift Others

Dr. Howard Rosing, the Executive Director of DePaul’s Irwin W. Steans Center for Community-Based Service Learning, strongly believes in integrating advocacy opportunities into the curriculum across all disciplines. He regularly teaches some among the 60+ advocacy courses taught at DePaul every quarter, courses that in total reach more than a thousand students each quarter. He also is piloting a composting program in collaboration with six community gardens in the Chicago area to improve food access and decrease food waste in the city.

To Dr. Rosing, being an advocate for change requires both inquiry and action. “The hope is to spark students to be interested in action,” he said. His role involves supporting faculty at DePaul, and in higher ed more broadly, to integrate activist learning, so that students begin to see the intersection between theories, methods, action, and agency in communities and neighborhoods.

Dr. Rosing reiterated the significance of asset-based activism, activism through which you highlight the assets of communities rather than barging in to implement what you think needs to be done. An asset-based approached to activism means listening in communities, looking for what is already working, and elevating that to build communities’ confidence and strength.

In Dr. Rosing’s view, advocacy is “learning diverse ways, understanding that every community does it differently, learning from them, reflecting the nature of diversity in Chicago, and building policies that respect and support that diversity.”

Takeaway 2: Care for Yourself

Dr. Damon-Moore, Associate Director of DePaul’s Irwin W. Steans Center for Community-Based Service Learning, has taught service learning for 30 years and is also an activist at heart. During our conversation, she described how her mindful activism class teaches students the importance of being mindful and present while working with communities, without judgment.

She highlights the importance of taking care of yourself: “Tend yourself, tend the world. Otherwise, you burn out,” she said.

Dr. Damon-Moore is also an advocate for students, urging us to tap into our unique strengths as individuals, “I say to all my students, “You have something to give.” She encourages students to explore their skills and passions, because there is always a way to bring those strengths to do systems-changing work.

Takeaway 3: Lean into Your Strengths

My final conversation was with Madeline Meyer, a student double-majoring in theater and political science. Like me, Meyer is a student fellow through DePaul’s Humanities X fellowship, a Mellon Foundation-funded collaborative that explores solutions to real-world problems through a humanities lens. This year’s theme is the environmental crisis and action.

“To me, environmental advocacy is a combination of individual and collective action,” Meyer said. “I think the best way we can each be environmental activists is by leaning into our individual strengths and bringing them to a collective.”

Drawing on both of her majors, Meyer believes in the power of blending environmental advocacy into the subjects you are passionate about. “I’m constantly considering how I can include environmental advocacy in my different interests, which I think goes back to leaning into our individual strengths.”

Together, We Can Change the World

Through these conversations, I realized I don’t have to put the weight of the world on my shoulders. When environmental advocacy seems too big of a burden to carry on our own, we must remember we are in this together. It is through collaborating with and uplifting others, mindful intention, and channeling our personal strengths to action that we have real power as activists.

Every action matters, because each of us has something unique we can give. I am now inspired to dig deeper into my own strengths, find creative ways to blend my passions with environmental activism, and add value to the communities I am a part of.

Ultimately, each of us can make a unique impact on our own. Together, we can be unstoppable.

Laura Murphy is a 2022–23 HumanitiesX Student Fellow