I recently returned from a 2 week trip to Senegal where I led a project on determining baseline blood lead levels in young children living in at-risk neighbourhoods in Dakar. It was an incredible experience and one that I was looking forward to integrating into my Sustainable Systems curriculum, but I will no longer have that opportunity.
I started teaching Sustainable Systems at Parsons in January 2019. I had taught English to first and second year undergraduate students at Sciences Po Lille in France nearly a decade earlier and had been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to teach at the university level again. I was ecstatic with my new role at Parsons, and I saw a real chance for me to provide my students with a unique learning experience. Unlike many of my colleagues at Parsons, I do not have a background in art or design. I have worked on a wide range of environmental issues in many different countries: plastic recycling and chemical regulation in the EU; water and environmental justice in Palestine and Mexico; toxic chemicals in beauty products in the US; and most recently my project in Senegal. I leverage my personal experience and the contacts I’ve made through my work to add to my curriculum and bring in guest speakers to expose my students to a broad range of expertise. When I’m not teaching I’ll make mental notes of people I’ve met or bookmark articles and documentaries that I can include in my teaching.
I love teaching. Despite the many projects I’ve had the privilege of working on during my career, I count positive feedback from my students as my biggest career accomplishment. I have had students write to me in appreciation of the lessons I’ve taught and the projects I’ve let them work on. I’ve had students tell me that they are now more interested in sustainability because of my class. There is no greater feeling than to know you have made a positive impact on someone’s education.
After only two years and no complaints or feedback from Parsons, I was stripped of the opportunity to become a better teacher and provide a better learning experience for Parsons students. On November 4th, after giving a well-received presentation on the importance of Diversity in Recycling (another topic I intended to integrate into my teaching), I opened my email to see that I had received a letter of non-reappointment from Parsons. I was both devastated and furious, and received no further clarification as to why I was no longer worthy of teaching at Parsons
I was committed to making environmental and sustainability education at Parsons a success; in 2019 I started to organize a design competition for students to try and redesign the ‘worst’ plastic packaging for consumer goods to make them more recyclable. I consulted fellow professors and a national recycling association to develop this competition that would help students gain a better understanding of the technical aspects of plastic recycling and how they can use their design skills to improve packaging design. Unfortunately the pandemic made advancing this initiative difficult and now I will no longer have the opportunity to make this initiative a reality.
I don’t teach because of the salary or the job security. In fact, in my first year I was likely earning close to, if not less than, minimum wage. Developing a whole curriculum for a class from scratch takes a lot of time, after all! I also have to apply for a contract-long visa to work at the school every semester and have spent quite a bit of time and money at the border waiting for approval of my paperwork.
These are a lot of hoops to jump through just for a job, but I do it because it’s enjoyable, and when you enjoy doing something you give it your all. I had given everything I thought I needed to give to my job as a teacher at Parsons and I took my job and my responsibilities very seriously. I know how much my students were paying for their time in my class, and even if I was only receiving a fraction of that tuition for my efforts I wanted to make sure they got the best learning experience I could give them. This was especially challenging during the lockdowns in 2020, but my colleagues and I still put in the time to make sure our students received a worthwhile learning experience. In return for all of that I was sent an impersonal and cold email telling me that my love and dedication to teaching was no longer needed at Parsons.
I had the privilege of teaching some really smart and creative students and working with some great people in my short time at the school and I’ll really miss it. I wish my colleagues the best and I hope the situation will improve for faculty and students alike.