I took SUST 501 in the Spring of 2020, it was the first course that I felt dove deeper into the real aspects of sustainability and the ways people can work to further address the major challenges of sustainability. In prior classes, I had taken only gave a brief introduction of concepts that make up sustainability, so it was nice to be able to take my prior knowledge to the next level. 

This class had taught me that there are a variety of ways to solve problems, and most groups don’t always take the considerations of stakeholders that they are not directly in contact with. Also how beneficial it is to look at issues from a broader scope. While editing the sustainability methods reader chapter on Businesses as Sustainability Actors with my group we added case studies and our own contributions to the previous year’s group further enhancing the chapter.  

Throughout the semester we participated in many discussions that allowed each student to get different perspectives as the SDM is made up of students from a variety of different majors. This was very beneficial to my learning being a Paul student, I feel it is easy to get stuck in one way of thinking. Learning about the importance of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning and exploring the different sectors of society and how they are all interconnected allowed me to better connect my previous experiences.